The Mexican rider wins third stage of Setmana Ciclista Valenciana with a long breakaway, Sierra is third
After Arlenis Sierra and Olga Shekel, Yareli Salazar is the third rider of the Astana Women’s Team to raise her arms to the sky in this beautiful beginning of 2020: the 23-year-old Mexican crossed the finish line ahead of everyone in the third stage of the Setmana Ciclista Valenciana and for her the joy is even bigger considering it’s her first career victory in a UCI road race. This amazing day for the colors of the Astana was also completed by the third place of Arlenis Sierra who also remains in the top 10 of the general classification on the eve of the last stage: in just over a month of races, there are already seven podiums conquered by the team.
The third stage of the Setmana Ciclista Valenciana featured a 94-kilometer route between Valencia and Port Sagunt that on paper could be good for the sprinters, but after the climb of the Puerto de Oronet, the breakaway that than proved to be decisive went away: along the descent Holden and Pirrone attacked, but Yareli Salazar was nicely able to join quickly the leading pair and to punt the team in the favourable condition of not having to work to close the gap.
In the main group, no team organized the chase and the trio in front reached an unbridgeable advantage of four and a half minutes: with 20 kilometers to go, only Salazar and Holden remained ahead and the Mexican took advantage of all her track experience and skills to mark the rival and then beat her in the sprint. Arlenis Sierra instead won the sprint of the peloton 2’52” behind: this result testifies to the goodness of the tactics studied by the staff of the Astana Women’s Team that could have brought a great result even if the escape had been catch. «It is truly incredible, it is my first victory in a UCI race and I still find it hard to believe. I am happy to have achieved this success, for myself and for the team» said Salazar at the end of the race.