POELS TAKES VICTORY AT VUELTA A ANDALUCIA
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| In a nail biting finale at the 68th Vuelta a Andalucia, Wout Poels outsprinted Lutsenko to get his first win of the season and take overall lead in the general classification. |
| A rather mild but windy Cúllar Vega greeted the teams as they started day four in a 167.4km journey to the small town of Baza located in Granada. |
In the early phases, there was an aggressive attack by 15 riders, including four of our own – Haig, Caruso, Poels and Landa.
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| Teams such as UAE Emirates attempted to draw in the leadway group as we approached 110km to go, but the breakaway continued to maintain their distance whilst the race was still in its infancy. |
| Puerto de Biancares climb came and went and still, the four members of Bahrain Victorious maintained their position. |
| With just under 50km remaining, one rider dropped off as our four riders kept their position in the breakaway, holding a healthy three minute gap to the peloton. |
| As the riders descended down from Puerto de Gorfafe, the advantage stood at around three minutes – giving ever increasing confidence that we could push for the win today. |
With over 15km to go, Poels pounced and took the lead ahead of the chasing pack with Lutsenko coming along as they both sensed victory. |
| The quest for glory continued as we came into the final two kilometres where Poels was ‘allowed’ to press ahead of Lutsenko. In the final moments as we advanced towards the finish line, it became a drag race between the two competitors, as we saw Poels use his power and drive to grab a fantastic but gruelling victory. |
| It leaves Poels sitting in first place in the general classification with a ten second lead. |
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Wout gave his thoughts after a brilliant win: “A nice but hard day! We had four riders up in the front the whole day and everyone worked perfectly together. In the final phase I still had good legs and followed when Lutsenko went, and in the sprint I could finish it off. Really happy with the win and another hard, last day tomorrow. So let’s see what we have left in the tank!” |
| Gorazd ​​Stangelj, Sports Director added: “After an expected hard start, we got into a 14 riders breakaway with our four riders. Chasing was strong so also those in front needed to push hard and in the last 20kms there was a big fight for the stage and GC and actually we won everything! Now we have a big objective to defend GC in tomorrow’s stage!” |
