Vuelta a Andalucìa Elite Women (final)
Jelena Erić wins the sprint in Castellar and finishes off the work of an insurmountable ‘telephone’ block in the Ruta del Sol, with Arlenis Sierra as the final winner.
Nothing and no one were able to beat the Movistar Team in the 1st edition of the Vuelta a Andalucía Elite Women (UCI 1.1), whose three partials and final classification were left in the hands of the group led in the south of Spain by Pablo Lastras. Jelena Erić finished off this Thursday the work of a sensational blue block, which with Arlenis Sierra secured the general of a test dominated by the telephone box, also in the hard climbs of the last stage -81 km between Fuengirola and Castellar de la Frontera- .
Katrine Aalerud and Sarah Gigante performed the necessary control work in the opening bars; Paula Patiño and a great Sara Martín, on the attack in the section after the last descent, worked great on the climbs to La Cruz (2nd) and Gaucín (1st), against the attacks of García (UAD) and other rivals; and Erić, who passed the last climb with her three companions, resolved the sprint ahead of Sierra, completing a magnificent double that leads the Abarca structure to 14 successes in 2022 -nine from the women’s draw-.
Comments:
JELENA ERIĆ –
“Very happy for some victories and a week that have been all the fruit of teamwork. We have known how to stay calm very well and we have always tried to have the group united to enter before any possible attack and protect Arlenis.
Facing the finish line, the plan was to try to run as close together as possible, and in the sprint, I think we played our cards well. The idea was to enter the corner first to launch the sprint and, if necessary, for Arlenis to start later, but neither Erica (Magnaldi) nor Mavi (García) nor the other rivals have been able to come back… so everything has gone well!
The calmness that Arlenis has transmitted to us throughout the race, his quality… gives us a lot of confidence that everything will turn out well, without stress. It was a tough and beautiful lap with a fantastic team”.
ARLENIS SIERRA –
“First of all: I want to thank God for the strength he gave me, and then, the whole team in general, riders and staff, for the magnificent job they did. The race was hard, especially in the last climb, but we knew how to keep a cool mind and wait for the end, which was the moment when we had to give everything. Everything went as we had planned.
She made me very happy that Jelena won because we had decided in the end: if she felt good, she was the one who had to do the sprint. She was giving him encouragement from behind on arrival (smiles). It has been very nice for me to close the week like this.
Andalusia will always be a very nice memory. We have enjoyed a lot and I am happy to close this first block of the season. Now I’m travelling to Cuba, for the Pan-American road race in Argentina in the middle of the month, and then we’ll start thinking about the big summer tests”.
