Caja Rural is one of only two professional teams in the Vuelta a Castilla y Leon but yesterday they took a beating when David Belda from the small Burgos team beat their star riders Marcos Garcia and David Arroyo in the queen stage. With Garcia now in 2nd overall, the team are hopeful that they can turn things around in today's final stage of the race.
Going into the Vuelta a Castilla y Leon, most were expecting the race to be a big battle between Caja Rural and Movistar who were the only two professional teams in the race. However, they were both denied in yesterday's queen stage when David Belda took a convicing solo win.
Caja Rural had Marcos Garcia finish second, 53 seconds behind the stage winner, while Movistar had Sylwester Szmyd 2 seconds further behind. With a very hard final stage coming up, however, Caja Rural refuse to give up as the stage offers the perfect terrain to put the small Burgos team under pressure.
"I felt good and was keen to do well after the Giro del Trentino," Garcia said. "I am happy to be up there. Belda was very good and I could not follow him. I feel good, the team is strong. Tomorrow the race will surely be very crazy. We will look at the groups that take off and try to be ahead to find our options."
"It was a tough stage with heat and wind as you often see it in this area," manager Eugenio Goikoetxea said. "The start was easy but it became a long and hard day. The team worked well to be in a good position all day. We tried to play our two cards, Marcos and David [Arroyo]. Untilthe end Garcia was there, but Belda was better.
"We still have the final stage. I am sure that it will be a very nice day with a great show and plenty of tactics. The GC will be deiced at the last minute. Movistar surely don't want to settle for this and with Marcos in second, we won't either. Anything can happen."
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