Quick update from Andalucia as the dust (well, snow) settles our 2013 victors are Alban Lakata and Robert Mennen of Topeak-Ergon. In British news, Sally Bigham makes it her third victory with team-mate Milena Landtwing and Richard Rothwell and Anthony White take the vets category. Good stuff!
Unfortunately our Bike Magic team of Melanie Alexander and Matt Page suffered with mechanicals and injuries, but you’ll find out all about that in their report later today.
Thank you to Matt and Mel for all their effort in reporting back after the stages and well done to all the Brits who took part.
Here’s the final report from the race organisers (in Spanglish):
ALBAN LAKATA AND ROBERT MENNEN WIN ANDALUCIA BIKE RACE 2013
Spaniards Carlos Coloma and Sergio Mantecón win the last stage. Sally Bigham and Milena Landtwing enter history winning the third edition in a row.
The last stage of Andalucía Bike Race 2013 in Jaén was the closure of an epic mountain bike stage race which has gathered the best mountain bikers on the international scene.
With very low temperatures and snow along the route, the head of the race has been leaded since the first pedal-stroke, by the spaniards Carlos Coloma and Sergio Mantecón, who already had announced “to target this stage victory”, which they finally achieved.
Riding in the chasing pack were the top contenders as well as the germans Johcen Käss and Markus Kaufmann, second both today and in the overall classification, while the “young guns” from the Multivan-Merdia Thomas Litscher and Ondrej Cink, who started Andalucía Bike Race 2013 as leaders and finished third in today’s stage, the same place they accupied in the overall classification.
The race victory in the third edition of Andalucía Bike Race 2013 was for Austrian Alban Lakata and German Robert Mennen, fourth in today’s stage.
The Topeak-Ergon men had a very consistent performance during the week and were “very happy” and had “a great feeling” about this competition. They also said that they would love to come back for the next edition. “It’s always special to win”, assures Lakata “but it feels even better when it’s the first race of the season”.
Among the national teams, the first classified were Juan Pedro Trujillo and Fran Pérez (Wild Wolf-Trek), placed in fourth position, while the first Andalusian team was Rubén Ruzafa and Antonio Ortiz, official team of the Interprofesional del Aceite de Oliva Español-Specialized.
In the female category, British Sally Bigham has entered history winning the third Andalucía Bike Race in a row, and the second victory with her Swiss team mate Milena Landtwing. Her dominance in the race has been absolute since the first stage of this edition, and has won all stages except for the fifth stage of last year.
In second position were the Norwegians Borghild Løvset and Heidi Rosåsen Sandstø (United Bakeries-Orkla), while the Spaniards Anna Villar and Nuria Picas (Tomás Bellés-Cannondale) finished in third place in the final result list.
One of the most thrilling duels of the race has been in the Master 30 category. Although starting today’s stage with the leader jerseys, Javier Cherro and Vicente Pla lost the victory in the general classification to Tomás Misser y Pablo Egeda (Tomás Bellés-Cannondale) from whom they had flaunted the leader jersey on the fourth stage. Egeda won Mixed Category in 2012 together with his team mate Anna Villar.
In this year’s Mixed category the victory went to the twice Bikemarathon World Champion Annika Langvad who, together with her team mate Thomas Bonne, dominated the competition from the beginning to the end. Her aim was to get ready for this year’s Cross Country World Cup which starts in a few months, and has achieved this goal, also taking to Denmark the victory of the third edition of Andalucía Bike Race.
The winners of the Master 40 category were British Richard Rothwell and Anthony White (MT Zoom), followed by the Spaniards Manuel Gonzalo and Francesc Sabiote (Doctore Bike) in second place and Josep Cardevila and Javier Padrós (Blue Motors) in third place of the general classification.
A total of 542 riders out of 670, have managed to finish Andalucía Bike Race 2013, which has again beaten its own records and has excelled as the most important race in Spain and the most emerging in Europe.
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