Cannondale Vas Arabay maintains their winning streak
8 de October de 2023Cannondale Vas Arabay is leaving no room for manoeuvre to their rivals. In two stages of the Škoda Titan Desert Almeria, four wins: two in the men’s category and two in the women’s category.
Today it was the turn of Miguel Muñoz in the men’s category. The current Spanish runner-up in cross country marathon has achieved his second victory in Titan World Series, after the one he achieved in the fourth stage of the Škoda Titan Desert Morocco 2021. Today he won with a powerful sprint in the last kilometre.
A stage in which the leading group stayed together until the climb to Huebro, where Luis Ángel Maté made good use of his virtues as a climber to open up a two-minute gap over the rest.
The gap vanished on the descent, on the Alfil Logistics stretch. From there to the finish line, the sextet of favourites remained in the lead, pulling in those last 30 kilometres that remained before reaching the Almeria circuit.
A final attack by Muñoz gave him the solo victory, 18 seconds ahead of the rest of the riders: Luis Ángel Maté, Pau Marzà, Luis León Sánchez and Fran Herrero.
Herrero, Miguel Muñoz’s team-mate, remains the race leader, 24 seconds ahead of Luis León Sánchez, the next rider in the GC.
KORTEKAAS, TWO OUT OF TWO
Tessa Kortekaas was the rider who hardly gave any options to the other riders. The Dutch rider won her second consecutive victory in the Škoda Titan Desert Almeria and extended the margin over Ariadna Ródenas to five minutes and 20 seconds.
The Mondraker – ŠkodaWeLoveCycling rider from Elche was able to stay neck and neck with Kortekaas until the dreaded climb to Huebro, the big pass of the day. On the climb, the leader used her strength to leave Ródenas behind.
The gap at the end of the climb was two and a half minutes, which was reduced to 1:30 in the remaining kilometres from Turrillas to the finish line.
It remains a head to head battle between the two riders, with Ródenas waiting for Kortekaas to make a mistake, which seems not to be coming so far. Behind, Mónica Calderón and Pilar Fernández crossed the finish line with a lot of time lost.
All in interesting margins for tomorrow’s Škoda We Love Cycling stage. The climb to the top of Velefique, which will also be timed and bonus as it is the Škoda Challenge section, will decide both GCs. For the moment, Cannondale Vas Arabay has an uncontested dominance and hopes to leave here with a historic double.
