The successes continue for Caja Rural-Seguros RGA in the final part of the season. After the victory last Tuesday of Daniel Babor in Langkawi, the Portuguese Iúri Leitão this Wednesday extended the good streak of the Spanish squad on the second day of the CRO Race, a short 114-kilometer stage resolved in a massive sprint in the town of Novalja.
The Omnium world champion arrived in a very good position at the last meters, so he decided to go ahead by launching the sprint 250 meters from the finish line, showing remarkable strength to open up a gap and comfortably resist the group’s reaction, surpassing the winner of the first stage, Elia Viviani, and the Norwegian Alexander Kristoff. The Portuguese is thus placed second in the general classification, 6″ behind the Italian of INEOS.
This is the fourteenth victory this season for Caja Rural-Seguros RGA and the fifth for Leitão in terms of road racing, since the rainbow title achieved in Scotland last August should be added.
Iúri Leitão: Today we had the intention of preparing the sprint for me, that is why the team has worked perfectly all day to leave me in front as comfortable as possible. In the climbs before the finish line, where it got quite hard, I already noticed that I felt good. The teammates were phenomenal during the stage, highlighting the help of Orluis at the end to overtake cyclists in the last 3 kilometers. I caught a good wheel at the end, I had legs and that’s why I decided to attack soon. In short, this is a very good victory that let me very happy.
The CRO Race will continue this Wednesday with a winding third stage between Otočac and Opatija where the candidates to complete a good GC in the Balkan race should appear in the front.
