“We were going at a good pace, until I started getting cramps and I couldn’t take it anymore”

Trofeo Víctor Cabedo
XXXII Entrada de Toros y Caballos de Segorbe (95,1 km)

The Alicante Juan Ayuso (Bathco) was exhibited in the first race of the Cabedo Trophy, held this Saturday with start and finish in Segorbe; a performance that practically took the rest of the participants away in five minutes. For the 25th kilometer of the race a quartet composed by Pablo Carrascosa, Jorge Gutiérrez, Juan Ayuso, and the Kometa-Xstra Arnau Gilabert had been set up in the lead. In ten kilometers they would roll with a minute and a half margin over the main peloton. The Catalan, however, would lose contact with that group in the first ramps of the climb to Toras.

The advantage between the head of the race and a first peloton of about forty units grew to three minutes, a margin wide enough to feed some skirmishes. Juan Ayuso would manage to leave alone and face the last twenty kilometers alone, increasing his advantage ostensibly with his pursuers as well as with the main platoon. Francesc Bennassar, fourth at 5:21, would give time to the main platoon. “It’s an impressive performance,” admits Francesc. Seventh, José Luis Medina.

“The guys on the run have been a lot stronger than me. Ayuso took off just before the first port and we were able to make room for the pack. We were going to relay, with a good pace, until I started to get cramps and I couldn’t take it anymore. I gave it my all. Back in the peloton, we worked on catching the break or cutting time,” explains Arnau Gilabert.

The Víctor Cabedo Trophy continues this Sunday with the dispute of a team time trial in Vila-Real, over six kilometres, in which the Kometa-Xstra will try to repeat the good performances of the last years in this discipline and, specifically, in this event.

(automatic translation, sorry for mistakes)