Double win at mountaintop finish in Spain

At the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana, Team BAHRAIN VICTORIOUS first managed to keep the time loss to a minimum in the opening team time trial. On the next day, the riders made good use of their climbing prowess, resulting in a double win at the mountaintop finish of Benifato by Santiago Buitrago and Pello Bilbao. Lenny Martinez, another rider of the team, made it into the top 10, finishing in 9th place.

For its 76th edition, the organisers of the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana opted for a course that rewards versatility. It all started with a team time trial on an undulating course, followed by a mountaintop finish the day after and another demanding mountain stage on day 3. Racking up more than 3600 vertical meters of ascending, stage 4 also was all but flat, with the conclusive stage finally offering up a chance for sprint specialists. Having won a stage and both the team and the young rider's classification at this race last year, Team BAHRAIN VICTORIOUS fielded a really strong line-up for the race: with Pello Bilbao, Lenny Martinez, Santiago Buitrago and Jack Haig the team counted no less than four strong climbers. Kamil Gradek, Rainer Kepplinger and Edoardo Zambanini were riding in their support.

The stage race started with a team time trial over 34.3 kilometres. In this race against the clock, the riders of Team BAHRAIN VICTORIOUS skilfully paced themselves and managed to keep the time loss to all other teams except for the day's winner Lidl-Trek to 21 seconds or less. So everything was still to play for, and the mountaintop finish of Benifato got turned into a grand stage for the riders aboard their MERIDA BIKES. Once the day's early attackers had been brought back, Tobias Foss tried his luck with a long-range attack on the Benimantell as the penultimate climb of the day. But the Norwegian was kept on a short leash, and Santiago Buitrago gave some glimpses of his good form when he reacted to repeated counterattacks from riders of Team UAE.

On the following descent, Pello Bilbao made good use of the descent to leave a strong lead group behind and bridge the gap to the race leader with another rider on his wheel. On the final ascent, Pello Bilbao clearly was the strongest of the three riders up front, but he seemed to run out of steam on the two final kilometres that were so steep that road builders had resorted to concrete slabs as pavement. Meanwhile, Joa Almeida was closing in at an alarming pace. But then Santiago Buitrago accelerated from Almeida's wheel and managed to create a significant gap before he managed to get back to and over his teammate Pello Bilbao on the last kilometre. While Buitrago rode to the stage win, Bilbao still managed to hold onto 2nd place, thus securing a double win for Team BAHRAIN VICTORIOUS. With Lenny Martinez finishing in 9th, the team had a third rider in the top 10.

After finishing, Pello Bilbao was full of praise for his Colombian teammate and the entire team: «Before the start, we knew that we probably were the strongest team on the climbs, and Santiago was riding impressively on the penultimate climb already. Having four riders in the first group was a big advantage, but other teams also still had multiple riders up there, so we needed to anticipate. That's why I decided to attack on the descent before the final climb. As for the finale, Santiago was incredibly strong. I could not keep up with him, but of course, I'm happy to see a teammate win and that this was a very good day from the team's perspective.» With three stages and plenty of climbing left in the race, Santiago Buitrago and Pello Bilbao have moved up to 3rd and 4th, respectively, on GC.

RESULTS:
76TH VOLTA A LA COMUNITAT VALENCIANA
STAGE 2: LA NUCIA - BENIFATO (FONT DE PARTEGAT), 166KM
1. Santiago Buitrago, COL/TEAM BAHRAIN VICTORIOUS, in  4:07.54 hours
2. Pello Bilbao, ESP/TEAM BAHRAIN VICTORIOUS, + 0.09
3. Joao Almeida, POR, + 0.13

Fotos: Sprint Cycling Agency