The riders directed by Aike Visbeek and Steven De Neef animated the queen stage of the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana (2.Pro, 2-6/02) on the Spanish east coast this Friday. 60 kilometer after leaving the start in Alicante, both Dimitri Claeys and Sven Erik Bystrom joined a breakaway of seven riders on the slopes of Coll de Rates, the first of six categorized climbs.
However the two riders of Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux could not benefit from a large gap on the peloton as Bystrom was the best placed rider in the provisional classification, 1’52 behind race leader Evenepoel. The Norwegian rider became the virtual leader on top of the fourth difficulty of the day with 40 kilometer to go. All escapees were caught on the difficult final climb, the Antenas del Maigmo (10km at 7.5%) which featured sterrati sectors.
On Saturday, a stage suited for sprinters is awaiting the riders in Torrevieja. 193 kilometer have to be covered after the start in Orihuela.
« It was a pretty hard day in the saddle! As we didn’t have a designated leader for this queen stage, our goal was to join the breakaway and try to gain a nice advantage on the peloton. It went very fast from the start and it took a long time before we finally managed to escape on the Coll de Rates. It became clear pretty soon that the peloton wouldn’t give us a chance to go for the stage victory, but Dimitri and I are happy with our day in the front. We showed our combativity and we can definitely use intense days like these in our preparation towards the classics! »
