Spanish team content despite bad luck

By Monika Prell in Stuttgart

The Spanish team was quite satisfied of their third day of racing in the World championships in Stuttgart, even if the performance was weakened by many crashes. Cyclingnews talked with members of the team after Saturday's races.

Three of the Spanish women finished the race. Their leader, Maribel Moreno, finished 14th, only six seconds behind the winner Marta Bastianelli (Italy). Moreno said after the finish, "I wanted to thank the selector for the confidence he had in me and my team-mates for the great work they did. We need points for the Olympic games, and I did what I could. The crash rattled me a lot, but luckily I am not injured, and the bike was also ok.

"I am quite happy with my race, and I rode also a very good season and showed that I am amongst the best ones," said Moreno. "To participate in these World championships was a step forward for me. My team-mates gave their best and I have to thank them. It's a young team but I believe that we have a great future."

Catalan Marta Vila, who finished 61, 10 minutes and 29 seconds back, said, "I felt very good until the sixth round, I worked a lot and controlled the race but just after the crash, I was in the second group and had no forces to go ahead. I am content of my work, even if I would have liked to be near to Maribel [Moreno] on the last lap. The balance is positive, I believe worked great together, and 14th for Maribel is a good result."

Basque racer Eneritz Iturriagaetxebarria finished 72nd, 12 minutes 40 seconds behind the Italian. She was injured in the last crash and lamented, "What a pity that I crashed, because just at that moment I felt very well. I attacked in the fourth lap because I wanted to try something and I saw that I was very fast. Just before the crash I talked to Maribel [Moreno] because we wanted to try another attack. The safety fence fell down on me, and I suffer a lot of pain in the hip and my collarbone. I long for next season because in this one I had a lot of bad luck."

Later in the day, the Under 23 men got their turn. José Herrada came out the best, finishing 24th with the same time as the winner, Peter Velits. "We began quite slow, but in the third, fourth round the battle began," said Herrada. "At the end I am content, even if I saw that [Beñat] Intxausti accelerated in the finish, so that I did not sprint. I should have sprinted… . I liked the world championships here, it's nice and we have great crowds."

Diego Milán, who finished 61st one minute and twenty seconds behind Velits, was tired at the finish line. "The race was good, but I am sorry that I could not profit from being in the big group. I had a lot of problems with my chain that broke. The profile is very hard, and I had a lot of pressure, so that together with the crashes the race seemed to be hard."

The Basque Beñat Intxausti who finished 60th, one minute behind the winner, was content about the profile and the race, "It was a good World championships race, for riders with a lot of power. I am content with my performance. The profile was my thing; I preferred it to a flat one."