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Don Benito and the wall of Magacela test the potential of the new Kometa Cycling Team junior

53rd Circuito del Guadiana
Don Benito-Don Benito (88 km)

The Circuito del Guadiana is much more than the opening of the elite and U23 Spanish Cup, it also hosts the kick-off of the national calendar in the junior category. The great race of Extremadura, with its repetition, has become a classic event. An awaited appointment. A weekend devoted to cycling in the heart of Las Vegas Altas. The whole region, as are the neighboring ones, is an area of great love for cycling and an unbeatable example of this is the great atmosphere with which you live the Guadiana Circuit in Don Benito, Villanueva de la Serena and all its this area.

A firm bet for the formative cycling created in the middle of the decade of the eighties (in 1985 already existed the junior race) that in the last times also has grown with the incorporation of categories master; of face to the future it should not be strange at all the beginning of a feminine test, an idea that in the Peña Ciclista Guadiana is being considered for a long time. The future is yet to be written. Saturday afternoon is the moment in which the test for the junior category takes place.

Not scoring for the Copa de España, the Circuito del Guadiana junior is the first test scoring for the classification of the Spanish Cycling Federation (RFEC). A race of great prestige, not exempt from its hardness, which consists of two laps to a circuit of more than 42 kilometers to total the 88 planned. In 2018, in his first sparkle as a rider of the Fundación Alberto Contador, the Andalusian Carlos Rodríguez won. The one from Almuñecar will not be of the departure in this edition and he will not be able to aspire to revalidate, around 18.00 hours of the Saturday afternoon, his victory. But the Kometa Cycling Team comes with a team of guarantees.

Pedro Beneit from Alicante, José Luis Medina from Andalusia, Juan José Rosal from Catalonia, Fernando Tercero from La Mancha, Raúl García and Javier Serrano from Madrid and Pablo Gutiérrez from Cantabria and David Quevedo from Cantabria are the eight runners who will take part in a race where the double pass through the Magacela hill, that kilometre (1.1 km) at 10.8% and maximum ramps of 20%, will once again act as a hot spot and selective enclave.

“I’m really looking forward to this debut”, explains Fernando Tercero, one of the new faces of the Kometa Cycling Team junior who will debut with his new colours in Don Benito. “I want to start competing with these colours and be able to give everything in a race that we are going to try to win”. Another of the debutants, six of the eight chosen to take part in the Circuito del Guadiana are, is the Cadiz José Luis Medina: “I am very happy with my evolution. I feel very good in the training sessions and I’m a little nervous for the debut: it’s a debut with a very important team and at the same time it’s a dream for me”. “I feel fine”, said Pedro Beneit, who this past Saturday participated in the Novelda test of the XI Torneo Interclubs Vinalopó with a sixth place in the absolute classification, first in its category.

Juan José Rosal from Girona is one of the veterans of the Kometa Cycling Team and he gives his point of view about the meeting in La Paz: “I am really looking forward to start this second season in the team. The Circuito del Guadiana is a fast race, with two short and explosive climbs. In general, it is in the second season when the peloton breaks. Along with this is added the plus of being the first of the season, with many nerves and tension in the pack, which makes it go even faster”.

Guillermo Gutiérrez, sports director of the Kometa Cycling Team: “The first race of the year arrives and we face it with a lot of enthusiasm. It was a race that we had been resisting and in the last edition we finally got rid of that thorn. The Circuito del Guadiana is a very crazy race because it is the first one of the year and it is also the first one in the category for first year juniors. But at the same time that it’s a crazy race it’s also very nice. Magacela usually puts that turning point to make the first selection that at the last minute, along with the wind and the long straights, finish making the final selection in which the race will be played. But if the wind doesn’t appear it could reach the sprint, where we could have an important advantage with Juan José Rosal or Javi Serrano, who brings a very good form point due to the track”.

(automatic translation, sorry for mistakes)

POLTI KOMETA
AURUM VISIT MALTA
GSPORT EOLO SKODA SOLO CAFFE
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CHIARAVALLI VITTORIA EMEN4SPORT LECHLER BRICS BKOOL PROLOGO ELITE LOOK SVITOL TRAININGPEAKS LACASADELFISIO SPORTLAST VELOTOZE Bend36 BETA Honest Food Pedranzini