With an outstanding performance in the opening time trial in Puerto Gaitan, Colombia Coldeportes Fabio Duarte earned the first win of his 2012 season and claimed the first leader’s jersey of the 62nd Vuelta a Colombia on Tuesday, June 12th.
On a very quick route of 4.6km starting and finishing in Puerto Gaitan, Duarte showed the excellent condition displayed in California a couple of weeks ago. He managed to beat defending champion Felix Cardenas (GW-Shimano) by a slender 730 thousands of a second margin. Marlon Perez (Colombia-Comcel) rounded out the podium with a 1 second gap.
Weather played a significant role in today’s race. After the first 30 minutes, rain started falling on the route, heavily affecting the chances of many athletes. Cardenas was one of the latest riders to race on dry roads, and fully exploited his chance by ticking a 4.33 time that looked unbeatable for a very long stretch.
“When it started raining, for a moment we thought our chance was gone” – General Manager Claudio Corti confessed afterwards. “Luckily, though, it quit in a hour or so, and the conditions were pretty good when Fabio got off the ramp.”
Former World Champion Duarte, who turned 26 yesterday, earned a very welcome double birthday gift, taking a long-expected first success in a Colombia Coldeportes jersey as well as the leader’s yellow jersey. Despite the solid improvement in time trial showed throughout the campaign, it was hard to predict such a strong ride by Duarte, who ended up equaling Cardenas’ time, but won the race leadership by the slenderest of margins: his team will now be committed to defend the race leadership from tomorrow on.
The first road stage of the 62nd Vuelta a Colombia will take the riders 192,8 km from Puerto Gaitan to Villavicencio. Even though the stage doesn’t feature any major difficulty, some uphill sections in the finale could take some of the sprinters out of contention, and could even serve as a springboard for those looking to take the leadership away from Fabio. Nevertheless, team blend is definitely one of Colombia Coldeportes’ main strengths, and the riders are willing to take responsibility to hold on the race, as well as taking their chances for stage victory.
