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Alejandro wins in Vejer de la Frontera

Alejandro wins in Vejer de la Frontera

1st of the 4th stage of the Vuelta

Alejandro won this afternoon the fourth stage of the Vuelta a España, a 209, 6 km long one between  Estepona and Vejer de la Frontera. 

The Spaniard, now the fourth overall 25” behind Colombian Esteban Chaves, preceded Peter Sagan and Dani Moreno uphill.

Alejandro’s quotes:

“Despite being a really demanding finish, we hadn’t made a recon earlier and only this very morning we checked it on the Internet to get the knowledge we needed about the slopes. I had to rest a bit after the Tour; should I had stayed on ‘racing mode’, checking the route, I would have burned myself out, and with technology around nowadays, you can check every detail and get more or less the same results.

“Seeing that it really was demanding, we knew it would suit me well, and with those really hard, final 400m, I kept my mind cold, because Alberto Losada was keeping a tremendous pace at the front. Sometimes, we’re the ones taking the biggest efforts in search for the stage win, as it happened Sunday towards the Caminito del Rey -which we couldn’t crown-, and today, even though we always kept the front and it was a really fought stage from the team -I can’t thank them enough for what they did-, we saved as much energy as possible while others brought the breakaways back one by one. The headwinds were strong all day and the heat, though not really intense -the Garmin was saying 30, 32 degress-, played an impact on the result.

“I was seeing that neither Bilbao nor Samuel Sánchez and Roche were opening a serious gap, and I kept Sagan under control. As the shadow on the ground showed him on my wheel, I didn’t have to look back. I knew he was strong, but into such a finish, with 200m to go, when Majka jumped away and closed the gap… you can suffer some sort of misfortune, but it was clear to me that this victory was mine, or at least I had a really strong chance. More than the bonus seconds I took, I’m happy because of this win, which makes my team-mates so confident about our chances.

“Leading the team alone? Not at all – nothing changes with this. Nairo and I remain equal in terms of leadership. It’s just that this finish was good for me, but Nairo is doing well, as you can see inside the peloton everyday. Caminito del Rey was the first serious day of racing after four of five when our legs almost did nothing like a real effort, and that made the stage really strange. It was very different today. We’re happy with this victory and look forward to keeping this line.”