The Italian Valentina Basilico, of the Spanish Eneicat CM Team-GIse won this Sunday the second stage of the Tour El Salvador 2024 with a time of 1.44,46 hours in a 72 kilometers route and in this way broke the winning streak of the Roland team.
The Italian, who won her second victory (a Grand Prix and this stage) was accompanied on the podium by the Colombian Karen González, of the Sistecrédito team and the Russian Tamara Drónova, of the Roland team, a group that worked to place in one of the podium positions.
The Eneicat team imposed its law against the sprinters of Roland, specialized in massive arrivals, who could not overcome the power of Basilico and the good preparation of the sprint of the whole Leonese team.
This Sunday’s stage was run in a closed circuit from the National Gymnasium as starting and finishing point, and was extended by the Boulevard de los Heroes to the vicinity of the University of El Salvador and return by the avenue 25 North to the Cuscatlán park and from there to the finish line in the vicinity of the Gymnasium.
The peloton rode in a compact way with some pulls at the arrivals of the flying goals and the maximum speed was 43 kilometers per hour. The best time was the last of the 12 laps of the circuit with 7.52 minutes.
The last lap was led by the leader of the competition, the Swiss Elena Hartmann, but in the end Basilico imposed the speed in the last meters and finished as winner of the stage.
“Good as the other day, my team very well. The circuit had many turns, I thought I could go to the breakaway. In the end very well, the team has worked very well, we are all very happy. Good points, my team is very happy, like me,” said Basilico.
In the start were 85 athletes from 25 countries of the 100 that started the events that already included three Grand Prix. The Salvadoran event provides 1,000 points for the International Cycling Union (UCI) world ranking and for qualification to the Paris 2024 Olympics.
To regret the accident of Xenia Molina, of the Honduran National Team, who suffered a fall at the height of Cuscatlán Park, when she was about to complete the second lap.
This Monday the cyclists will race the third stage (100.5 kilometers) from the International Airport of Ilopango to San Luis Talpa, in La Paz, about 34 kilometers southeast of the Salvadoran capital.
Source: Agencia Prensa Latina y https://lapagina.com.sv