23 Lug TOP-5 IN COLINA TRISTE
José Mari Sanchéz and Miquel Faus debut as a duo in the Colina Triste race in Burgos. The SCOTT Cala Bandida team took 5th place in the overall classification.
With the experience of previous years, the Bandits arrived in Santo Domingo de Silos ready to give their all. Preceded by last year’s victory in which José Mari Sánchez teamed up with Sergio Mantecón, the team already knew what it meant to do well in Colina Triste. But on this occasion, Mantecón was replaced by Miquel Faus, a replacement hungry to take a step forward. The objective this time was to do well among the best, finishing the race in the top five overall. With their minds set on that target, they started stage 1, a 21-kilometre timed stage, which was the appetizer for the following days. The stage against the clock served as a chance to get to know each other as riders, as it was the first time they had ridden together in the race, achieving the sixth fastest time.
Stage 2 was the first stage, the first of the marathon stages, and was marked by the unforgiving July heat. Sanchez and Faus were fighting at the front for almost the entire race, and they stuck to the escapees in order not to lose their chances of victory. However, the kilometres were long, and they did not lose any strength to finish the day in 6th position.
Stage 3 was the main course, or in cycling jargon, what is called the queen stage. It was a day in which the blues paid for the previous day’s overexertion and failed to find the best of themselves to get close to the podium again. However, knowing that this would be a long race, the riders gave it all and found in their regularity a good point to enter in 4th place overall.
On the closing day, it was time for dessert, and that was when they sweetened the week by confirming a good result in the general classification, finally achieving 5th place. The XCM Spanish Champion was happy at the end, for the learning that a race like this had meant with a teammate with whom he had not cycled until then and above all for fulfilling the goal they had set themselves at the start.
