Literature and cycling converge in the high of the Morratero. Long before the bikes went up the Azorín, essayist and playwright area of … The 98 generation, fascinated with that traditional term that tried to popularize. MORREDERO. He liked loudness, but he didn’t know what he meant. It becomes the translation of the Asturleon of the ‘Moridero’, the place of death. At the top they found the bodies of shepherds and some disoriented pilgrims who appeared there after the thaw. From this damn summit, the return has left alive.
The torture of the slope that discovered the round, 8.8 kilometers to 9.7% of average slope, with an initial section of 5 kilometers to 12%, was equally exhausting for Jonas Vingegaard as for Joao Almedia. The two favorites for the final victory could be measured without any protest but also without strength. Without his best legs. “He has not had the best day but neither does a bad one,” Kuss said about the Danish. Your leader replicates. “Not wasting time on a bad day is good,” he remains leader and increases the rent two more seconds. Again to 50, the same as at the beginning of Angliru.
«I see all the very tired people. I haven’t found myself perfect, but these days pass, ”said the Portuguese, fatigued. In the absence of 6.3 kilometers of the finish line, with the attack of Hindley, the Portuguese could not follow the rhythm. He gave up a few meters that, at his pace, managed to recover a kilometer later. Meanwhile, Vingegaard looked behind, but did not throw his stake. He could not bury Almeida at the top of death.
A Wheel of Caldas da Rainha suffered Giulio Pellizzari, from Redbull-Bora, the best young woman. He knew that this wheel could take him again with his partner Hindley, Pidcock, Vingegaard and Riccitello, with which he rivals the white jersey. The six ended together the hard section, next to the blackened remains of a burned saw by which forest firefighters claim more resources. Natural disaster They climbed silently, listening to the blush of the wind that awaited them in the final stretch.
As soon as you contact the main road to the Morrate’s Ascension, with the least inclined ramps and the most ironed firm, Pellizzari started. The Italian took advantage of the doubts of the favorites, each pending of their struggle. Vingegaard and Almeida by red. Pidcock and Hindley on the podium. Riccitello or could not or was clueless. He tried to attack up to twice but there Hindley was drying. He always went to his wheel and with him the rest. There they stopped. “I have no one to blame more than myself,” said the 23 -year -old American from Israel. For a day, the stage was developed without altercations.
Meanwhile, the Italian, 21, earned meters. Trust. Moral. Large dish Insurmountable difference. Fair forces And so, crowns his second season as a professional with his first victory in a big one. Second arrives Pidcock, 16 seconds. Hindley at 18. Vingegaard at 20. Almeida at 22. All breathless. With just one thing in his head. The time trial of tomorrow. “I don’t have a magic ball, so I don’t know,” says Almeida. He wants air. It is of little that in the Tour counterreloj will complete it in seven seconds less than the Danish or that in the 2023 edition it would be able to complete the same route in Valladolid (25.8 kilometers) 28 seconds faster. “The past does not give guarantees.”
The Morratero premiered in the Tour in 1996 with fear. The strong mining claims tried to cut the race. There was also a logistics problem. The trucks of the race did not pass through bodily, the town where the climb began. Between the town store and a haystack there were 10 centimeters of width. “My cows do not eat tickets,” the farmer replied when they proposed to knock down the place with their corresponding financial compensation. Finally, only a part was demolished and then proceeded to the reconstruction thanks to the vehemence of the owner, who demanded the money before the celebration of a stage won by Roberto Heras ahead of the Chava.
The past seemed to repeat. Strong protests, although by different cause, and a logistics problem. The wind prevented the normal installation of the goal in the morning. With streaks of 50 kilometers per hour, it seemed difficult for cyclists to crown. They chose to dispense with all replaceable insfrustructure, including the fixed television cameras, and expect to reduce. The top of the Sierra that surrounds Ponferrada, one of the areas most affected by forest fires this summer, is a peeled summit, low vegetation, very exposed to the wind. But this did well
He also endured the rain, which fell strongly during the control of signatures in O Barco de Valdeorras (Ouresense). Peró did not last, he ran out of desire. Then the air that slipped around Ponferrada, surrounded by mountains, and the visma headed the platoon. They wanted to fight for victory and start sentencing the general. They barely gave two minutes of margin for the escape of Harold Tejada, Antonio Tiberi, Sergio Samitier, Gijs Leemreize, Brandon Rivera, Jonas Gregaard, Patrick Gamper, Luca Van Boven, Leandre Lozouet, Madis Mihkels, Timo Roosen and, one more day, Joel Nicolau, the best guerrillar in the race.
When the escapes caught, in the repes prior to the final climb, Félix Gall has already begun. The Austrian was advancing cut cyclists from the UAE, such as Vine and Grossschartner. Ayuso was either. Almeida was not going to have anyone with exchanges, while Vingegaard had Tulett, Jorgenson and Kuss. “I suffered more before the last climb than in the same,” said Vingegaard. That numerical superiority was not remarkable in the hard ramps of the Morratero. The name that captivated Azorín went through a forum to consultation in 2010 because it was too abrupt. It gave a bad image for a skiing track is from ‘Moridero’, a place to die. 64% of the Ponferradinos opted to keep it. No funeral connotations, even for calcined slope forests that will try to rebound.
«It was devastating to see the area so affected and burned. A pity for Spain, terrible to see these devastating images, ”Vingegaard added on the bleak panorama that the fire has left this summer in the area.
