Colombian Jonathan Guatibonza from the Gw Shimano club gave his country’s first partial victory in the traditional Tour of Táchira, by winning the third stage, which had an unprecedented arrival in La Tendida, after 126.5 kilometers from San Juan de Colón, with five intermediate prizes on a well broken ground for the peloton.
The first breakaway of the second was attempted by runner Edwin Torres from the Táchira Lottery who started the first breakaway of the day, which was followed by Eduardo Fernández from Produgar and Colombian Yosymar Jerez from Team Gezprom. But as soon as the field reacted, the trio was caught and the race stopped having big surprises.
However, Edwin Torres fought for the intermediate prizes of the day and won the sprint and was third in another, valid to get 10 points that place him third in the Sprint standings.
Guatibonza, only 18 years old, achieved the first Colombian victory in the Andean round and was the fastest in the group packing, ahead of the Venezuelan Carlos Torres (Fundación Ángeles Hernández) and his compatriot Marco Tulio Suesca (Movistar-Best PC ).
“I am very happy with this victory. We were looking for it from the first day and today we finally got it. We have worked very hard for this, and here are the results. There are still beautiful opportunities to succeed, and we will continue looking for what we have achieved today”, said Jonathan Guatibonza (GW Shimano – Sidermec), once he got off the podium of the best in Venezuelan territory.
“The work of the whole team has been sensational. The boys followed to the letter what was said in the technical talk in the morning, and we were finally able to celebrate our first great victory in this important competition early. My acknowledgments and congratulations to them and all the technical staff”, indicated the GW Shimano – Sidermec coach, Luis Alfonso Cely from La Tendida.
For his part, the runner Franklin Lugo from the Sabemiel de Aragua team was able to keep the Líder jersey, with a time of 10h 2 ′ 46 ″. Second in the general classification was the runner of the Government of Trujillo Juan Ruiz at 1′ 02 minutes, while third is Juan Alba from Movistar BEST PC of Ecuador at 1′ 11 minutes.
In other sections, Edwin Torres dominates the Mountain classification by adding 10 points, ahead of Yosymar Jerez from Gezprom with 6 points and third Julio Blanco from Space In Nove with 4 points.
As of the fourth stage of this Wednesday, the first category mountain begins to appear, where the favorite riders will begin to show themselves. It will be a 133.1-kilometre section between the towns of Lagunilla and Mérida, which will end on rising ground, and where a good performance is expected from the best climbers in the peloton.
Source: Revista Mundo Ciclístico