Santiago Buitrago doubles up in Spain

At the La Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana, Team BAHRAIN VICTORIOUS continues to perform brilliantly. Just two days after winning stage 2, Santiago Buitrago also managed to win stage 4 of the race, and at the end of stage 3 he only was beaten by the solo winner. With one stage to go, the Colombian looks set to win the overall standings of this stage race.

Santiago Buitrago managed to win the second uphill finish at La Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana as well. After an eventful and tough stage over 180 kilometres and 3600 vertical meters of aggregate climbing, the Colombian of Team BAHRAIN VICTORIOUS left all rivals in his dust with one scorching acceleration on the steep last two kilometres, crowning the strong work of his teammates. There was no lack of work for them as first, the early three-rider breakaway had to be brought back, and once that had been done, no less than three riders of Team Movistar tried their luck with separate consecutive attacks. But all three were brought back well in time, with Kamil Gradek, Rainer Kepplinger and Jack Haig playing key roles in this.

With his second stage win within three days, Buitrago also moved into the lead of the overall standings of this five-day stage race held in the South of Spain. With just one stage likely to be decided in a bunch sprint, Buitrago's lead over second-placed Joao Almeida stands at 18 seconds - which should be sufficient, really. With Pello Bilbao, another rider of the team, followed up on his strong performances as well, crossing the finish line in 6th place and thus consolidating his 3rd place on GC. As for the points classification, Buitrago has a big lead, with Pello Bilbao in second. In the team classification, Team BAHRAIN VICTORIOUS is 2 minutes and more ahead of its closest competitors, and Lenny Martinez moved up to 3rd place in the young riders classification.

Team BAHRAIN VICTORIOUS had already raced aggressively throughout stage 3. But just like all other teams, it got caught on the wrong foot by a late attack from young Spaniard Ivan Romeo, who managed to keep 10 seconds of his advantage all the way to the finish line. In hot pursuit Team BAHRAIN VICTORIOUS and Team UAE were testing each other, not for the first time at this edition of La Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana. While Santiago Buitrago had lost a bonification sprint to Joao Almeida at the top of the penultimate climb of the stage, he managed to beat his Portuguese rival on GC in the sprint for 2nd. Right behind these two, Pello Bilbao crossed the finish line in 4th place.

RESULTS:
76TH VOLTA A LA COMUNITAT VALENCIANA
STAGE 4: OROPESA DEL MAR - PORTELL DE MORELLA, 181KM
1. Santiago Buitrago, COL/TEAM BAHRAIN VICTORIOUS, in 4:53.29 hours
2. Jonathan Milan, ITA, + 0.06
3. Jakob Söderqvist, SWE, st

STAGE 3: ALGEMESI - ALPUENTE, 180.3KM
1. Ivan Romeo, ESP, in 4:26.15 hours
2. Santiago Buitrago, COL/TEAM BAHRAIN VICTORIOUS, + 0.10
3. Joao Almeida, POR, st

OVERALL GC STANDINGS BEFORE THE CONCLUSIVE STAGE:
1. Santiago Buitrago, COL/TEAM BAHRAIN VICTORIOUS, in 14:07.51 hours
2. Joao Almeida, POR, + 0.18
3. Pello Bilbao, ESP/TEAM BAHRAIN VICTORIOUS, + 0.3

Photos: Sprint Cycling Agency