QUITO. The Ecuadorian Sebastián Novoa, of the National Police Cooperative, was crowned winner of the first stage of the XXXVI Cycling Tour of Ecuador, which began Monday at the José Luis Recalde velodrome in Quito.
In the middle of an intense cold, thunder and gray clouds, that threatened with a persistent rain on the athletes, the return began – postponed by the disturbances of the last month in the country – with an almost symbolic test.
The first stage was a time trial of just three laps on the velodrome circuit, which Novoa traveled in 1 minute and 6 seconds.
His immediate pursuer, Sebastián Rodríguez, of the Shimano team, came in second position a second later, while Rickie Gordillo, of the Pro Rider team, entered the third with 1 minute and 8 seconds.
The second stage will run tomorrow between Quito and Cayambe, a distance of 56 kilometers in which Novoa has great aspirations because he said he knows it “by heart”, to the point of remembering “every hole in the Pan American (road), every curve, every kilometer “.
New national teams and two foreigners participate in the competition, after the Vuelta came less because of the cancellation of some teams from the Netherlands and other countries in the Americas.
On Tuesday afternoon, cyclists will also run the third stage of the postponed lap, which will consist of a 49-kilometer circuit in the city of Atuntaqui, in the north of the country.
The XXXVI Tour of Ecuador includes towns in four provinces of northern Ecuador: Pichincha, Imbabura, Carchi and Sucumbíos, with a total route of 600 kilometers distributed in eight stages.
The competition should have taken place from October 5, but it was postponed due to the wave of protests that Ecuador lived, in which protesters blocked several roads of the circuit that was planned. (EFE).
THREE FIRST CLASSIFICATION STAGE (1 KM).
- Sebastián Novoa (Police Cooperative) 01: 06.72
- Sebastián Rodriguez (Shimano) 01: 07.41
- Rickie Gordillo (Pró Rider) 01: 08.00