Welcome to the Spanish National Championships and welcome to one of the most anticipated NC races of this off-season. The riders are tired after a long season and now they find themselves at the bottom of a mountain. This short mountain stage does favor the bold early attackers, so lets see if that is the case this year!
Euskaltel's D. Fernandez is the first rider to try his luck! The Basque Country outfit has its eyes on the breakaways to snatch the win from the big boys and sending Fernandez might be very wise!
The breakaway quartet reach the top of the first big Mountain climb of the day with a 6 minute gap down to Jo. Herrada, who attacked on the climb, that now have another 6 minutes to the rest.
Now with action here with only 2500 meters left and it is Daniel Navarro on the attack vector! Herrada is trying to chase him down, while Valverde and Fernandez are setting their own pace further down. Jo. Herrada is 40 seconds down, but won't make the finish line first sadly after a valiant effort!
Welcome to the Spanish National Championships! We join in late as Benat Intxausti has set his first Intermediate time, where he came in 6th, that is 21 seconds from Ion Izagirre with the best final time on 1h19'05!
M. Gonzalez Salas eyes his chance to take the Spanish NC, where he just took the best 2nd intermediate time with over 50 seconds to that of Madrazo and Intxausti just did!
Omar Fraile is the first real favorite to beat Izagirre's time with 4 seconds. That will not be enough with the times set out there, so lets see who else can challenge for the win. Madrazo and Intxausti has finished their laps, but were a whole minute down...
Gonzalez Salas comes in with a new best time, smashing Fraile's time into the waste bin with a 29 second deficit! However reports confirm that Justo Tenorio is the last favorite to enter the final kilometer soon and he has taken both Intermediate times!
Justo Tenorio kept his cool, but was very close to being burnt out too early, but manages to take the Spanish ITT NC with 11 seconds down to Salas! Fraile comes in 3rd 41 seconds down...This ITT is always hard to predict, but today Tenorio and Pokerstars can cherish being Spainsh Champions!
