Herrero and Ramírez do not relax
11 de May de 2022The sun rises every morning in the desert brightly. It emerges between the dunes, illuminating everything at once. Today it seemed dimmer. The routine was the same: wake up at 6. am, have breakfast and get ready to leave. But the atmosphere was different. Everything was centered on the minute of silence that the race capsule dedicated to Ernesto Escolano. The silence turned into an emotional and effusive applause, in memory of this Titan who left us, unfortunately, yesterday.
Perhaps with this in mind, the peloton rode a little slower than on the previous three days. They arrived at the first checkpoint very grouped in the lead and the attempts to navigate by some of the riders did not bear fruit in the long run. With 116 kilometers of stage ahead, the GC favorites decided to take it easy and not to force attacks that they might later suffer.
Finally, the elites arrived in a leading group that disputed the sprint. Francisco Herrero won another day over the rest. The stage classification was Herrero, ahead of Oriol Colomé and Konny Looser. The rider from Segovia, who wears the penultimate bib of the peloton, has not let go of the overall lead since the first day. He is still the leader and is already dreaming of taking the red jersey to Maadid.
Anna, Anna and Anna
Once again, the women’s GC was a duel between Vera Looser, who is not giving up in the fight, and Anna Ramirez, who is taking it easy, measuring her efforts, but maintaining her ambition.
Both riders were grouped together throughout the race, with minimal gaps that were being cut towards the end of the stage. The sprint was, once again, for Ramírez. The Catalan adds her third partial victory. Three out of four and a blue jersey that Looser seems unable to jeopardize.
The Looser couple will have their big chance tomorrow to turn the general classification around. The navigation section and the ŠKODA Challenge may cause the leaders to hesitate or break down. Swords at the top to storm the throne of the two riders who have been leaders since the beginning of this ŠKODA Titan Desert Morocco 2022.
