“Tactically, there’s nothing to blame: today, we missed only a good result”, this was the conclusion of Sports DirectorValerio Tebaldi after a Gran Premio di Lugano which saw Team Colombia-Coldeportes’ Escarabajos involved in all the important moments of the race, and rewarded just with the 19th place by Rodolfo Torres after a sprint won by Nicolò Bonifazio (Lampre-Merida), ahead of Francesco Gavazzi (Southeast) and Matteo Montaguti (AG2R).

Reduced to a seven-man team after Edward Diaz had to withdraw from the start in the last moment due to a sore throat, the Colombians made themselves noticed right away, by sending two cyclists, Carlos Julian Quintero and the 18-year-old Daniel Martinez, in the break that has formed after only 17 km from the start. The race was controlled at first by RusVelo, which didn’t allow the escape to have more than a 3’30’’ gap, while Tinkoff-Saxo and Lampre-Merida took the responsibility later on, anxious to play their cards in the finale.

After the break was caught with just 30 km before the end, several riders tried to get clear on the last climb, with only 15 km to go: among them, Ivan Basso (Tinkoff-Saxo), followed by an Alex Cano still not at 100%, but on the right path, and Rodolfo Torres, who tried to launch a counterattack. Unfortunately, the slopes of the climb weren’t favorable for a serious selection, giving a fast rider like Nicolò Bonifazio the chance to show his sprinting skills.

“We finished with three riders – Cano, Rubiano and Torres – to the fore until the end, and so I think we can speak of a quite solid display. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get the result that we would have arguably deserved. Now we are prepared for two stage races, the Tour de Langkawi and Tirreno-Adriatico, where we want to confirm our progress”, Tebaldi added.

It was a very difficult race in France, in La Drome Classic (Livron-Livron, 201 km), where the Escarabajos couldn’t lay their mark in a day with terrible weather. Samuel Dumoulin (AG2R-La Mondiale) took the win, while Fabio Felline (Trek) and Sebastian Delfosse (Wallonie-Bruxelles) came 4, respectively 7 seconds behind.