Mikel Landa raises his hands after proclaiming himself champion of the Vuelta a Burgos. /
Cycling
The Frenchman collapses on the hard slopes of the Lagunas de Neila, where Carthy prevails and a sixth place is worth the Vuelta a Burgos from Murgia
Modern cycling has changed this sport a lot, but it has not killed the birds. Even if it is from time to time, they appear. Like yesterday in the last stage of the Vuelta a Burgos, with the traditional final in the Lagunas de Neila. Romain Bardet, dominator two days earlier in the ascent to Picón Blanco on the way to Espinosa de los Monteros, dropped down from the group of strongmen three and a half kilometers from the top. He had 45 seconds of rent on Mikel Landa to manage. However, the fainting was of such caliber that Murgia took more than a minute and a half ahead of him at the finish line.
Landa did not need any exhibition. In fact, he finished the stage sixth, 16 seconds behind the winner, Hugh Carthy, the winner at El Angliru last Vuelta a España. Education First, who won the Clásica de Donostia with Powless, is still on a roll.
Bardet’s pájara was of such caliber that it fell to sixth place overall. The leader promised them happy because he had shown a clear superiority in the mountains. Most saw him as the third French winner of the Vuelta a Burgos after Armand de las Cuevas in 1994 and Laurent Jalabert in 1997. There was no such. Quite the opposite. On the other hand, Mikel Landa reissues his victory in the 2017 round of Burgos four years later.
Landa confessed that the general was not the initial target. «I wanted to repeat the photo of my stage win from ten years ago in this very place. It could not have been, but winning the Vuelta a Burgos makes me equally happy ».
The Alava praised the work of his team, Bahrain. «The work of each and every one of my colleagues has been fundamental. They have imposed a strong rhythm and Bardet has had a bad day. In the end, there were people with more spark than me in the final part of the climb. Bahrain, by the way, puts two riders on the podium, with Padun on the third step.
This success is a good cover letter for his next big goal, the Tour of Spain. “It gives me confidence in a season in which I have only been in competition for a few days.”
The Neila Lagoons had nothing to do with what was seen in Picón Blanco. The great protagonists changed and the turnaround in the general classification was spectacular. Bernal was seen with a start 600 meters from the finish line, but Carthy and Einer Rubio, finally a Movistar, traced him back.
Caja Rural leaves in the Tour of Portugal due to two cases of Covid
The Caja Rural-Seguros RGA team did not start the third stage of the Tour of Portugal after detecting two positives in Covid-19 in the antigen tests carried out on Friday night and yesterday morning. Both the staff members and the cyclists are already in their homes, where they will remain isolated and undergo PCR tests to check if they have been infected or not.
Jon Irisarri, Jon Barrenetxea, David González, Orluis Aular, Jhojan García, Josu Etxeberria and Héctor Sáez were the seven Caja Rural riders participating in the Portuguese round.
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