May 5th, 2022
Jelena Erić wins Castellar sprint, crowns huge work from unstoppable Telefónica-backed squad at Ruta del Sol, with Arlenis Sierra as overall victor
No one could beat the Movistar Team at the 1st edition of the Vuelta a Andalucía Elite Women (UCI 1.1), whose three stages + overall classification went to the hands of the group led by Pablo Lastras in southern Spain. Jelena Erić crowned on Thursday a sensational job from the Blues, who secured the GC with Arlenis Sierra as the Telefónica-backed squad also dominated the course over the tough climbs of stage three -81km between Fuengirola and Castellar de la Frontera-.
Katrine Aalerud and Sarah Gigante covered the necessary, early duties; Paula Patiño and a strong Sara Martín, on the attack in the section after the last descent, worked so hard at the ascents of La Cruz (Cat-2) and Gaucín (Cat-1), against the moves from García (UAD) and other rivals; and Erić, who completed the last climb with her three team-mates, finished things off in the sprint ahead of Sierra, a brilliant one-two which takes the Abarca Sports organisation’s account up to 14 victories in 2022 -nine wins for the women’s squad-.
REACTIONS:
JELENA ERIĆ – “We’re so happy about these victories, and this week – it’s all been the fruit of magnificent teamwork. We’ve been able to race calm all week, always keeping the group together to bridge back against any possible attacks and keep Arlenis weell protected.
“Heading into the finish, our plan was to stay together until the end before the sprint, and we played our cards well into that final kilometer. Our idea was that I entered the last turn first, and have Arlenis on my wheels in case we needed her to continue the sprint, but in the end, neither Erica (Magnaldi) nor Mavi (García) or the other rivals were able to overtake us – it all turned out well!
“The way Arlenis kept us into order and calm all race, her quality – it makes us so confident, how she rides, always keeping us convinced it’s going to go well, with no stress. It’s been a beautiful, hard race, together with a fantastic team.”
ARLENIS SIERRA – “First of all, I want to thank God for the strength He gave me, then to the whole squad, riders and staff, for the magnificent job they did. The race ended up being pretty hard today despite the short length, especially over the last climb, yet we kept our minds cold and waited for the finish, where we really had to give everything. It all went as we planned today.
“It made me so happy to see Jelena win, because she was our choice for the finish: should she feel well to sprint, she was the one we wanted to go to the line with. I was even cheering for him into the last straight (smiles). It was so beautiful for me to end the week like that.
“Andalucía is always going to bring me good memories after this. We enjoyed the race so much, and I end this first block of racing so happy about what we achieved. Now I’m going back to Cuba, to compete at the Pan American Road Race Championships in Argentina later this month, then I’ll start thinking about the big stageraces in the summer.”
