Everything remains at home Looser
8 de October de 2022About 700 kilometers separate two key hotels for the Titan World Series: the Xaluca of Errachidia, in Morocco, and the Barceló Cabo de Gata, in El Toyo. 700 kilometers from which was the finish line of the last stage of the ŠKODA Titan Desert Morocco and which has been the finish line of the first stage of the ŠKODA Titan Desert Almería. These two locations have little in common, except that both have seen Konny Looser triumph.
The Swiss did not want to pass up the opportunity to open gaps. In a first day marked by the wind and first kilometers that ran along the Cabo de Gata, the reigning winner of Morocco has sent a message to demonstrate that comes to Almería to win everything.
It was clear very soon that only Miquel Faus could keep up with Looser. The Swiss and Valencian riders went together from the beginning. Relaying on each other, they arrived in the lead at all the CPs, from the town of Albaricoques, an emblem of western movies filmed in Spain, to Cortijo del Fraile, a location that inspired Federico García Lorca for his masterpiece, ‘Bodas de Sangre’.
Everything was left for the final sprint, in which only six seconds separated them. Far behind came the rest of the riders. Xavi Ariza was third, five minutes behind the leader, and Luis Ángel Maté, who lost a lot of time on the final sandy sections and is now seven minutes behind in the general classification.
Who did not need help, or relays or understanding of any kind was Vera Looser. The Namibian cyclist, who comes from making a meritorious second place in the ŠKODA Titan Desert Morocco, has shown that in Almería only victory is worth. Already from the first CP, Looser was eight minutes ahead of her immediate pursuer, Pilar Fernández. The Spaniard, cross country marathon champion in Catalonia, lost more than 30 minutes at the finish line with the race leader. Vera Looser said yesterday that she felt “even stronger” than in Morocco, where only Anna Ramirez could beat her, and, like Konny, she didn’t want to wait a day to prove it. |
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