Mantecon wins opening stage in Lanzarote

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Pre-race favourite Spanish Sergio Mantecón (Wild Wolf Trek Pro Racing) took his first victory of 2013 in the 38km stage 1 of the Club La Santa Four-Day race. He finished the relatively flat stage in 1:21:47. Sally Bigham won the women's stage.

It was a strategic race, with all the favorites at the front except for Germans Stefan Sahm and Karl Platt from Team Bulls. They finished up 1:27 after Mantecon.

Mantecón set the pace of the lead group which also included his teammates Carlos Coloma and Juan Pedro Trujillo and Simon Stiebjahn, Tiago Ferreira, Jesus del Nero, Pedro Romero and Ismael Ventura.

At 5km from the finish, Mantecón managed to escape the others and rode to a solo victory, with a 15-second advantage over runner-up Stiebjahn and 30 seconds over del Nero. Ferreira came in fourth and Coloma was fifth.

"I felt better than I expected, almost too good at this point of the season," said Mantecón. "It's the first victory of the year, the best outcome that could happen. This victory is dedicated to Iñaki Lejarreta, Burry Stander and all other anonymous cyclists who have lost their lives on the road!"

Coloma said he felt good and was pleased with the team's work. "I am also very happy because I have had a sore knee and it seems fine now."

Women

Sally Bigham seemed to have no trouble racing to victory among the women.

On her blog, she wrote, "This is my third year taking part in the race, and I'm hoping that the saying 'third time lucky' will accurately describe my experience over the next few days - I'm yet to win the overall race!"

"The course was a little longer than last year due to protected birds choosing to lay their eggs on the original course. The additional kilometres were on more technical terrain and longer race times reflected these changes."

Bigham took a cautious start, not wanting to crash in the enthusiastic scramble of the start. "It meant that I had a little work to do once we hit the first off-road section, but this was fine because it's good training. There was a fair bit of wind so staying in a group was pretty helpful. I seemed to be alone more often than I was in a group - sometimes you need a little luck to get a good group - but again, I didn't mind because working into the wind, I told myself, was great power training."

Bigham compared the trails ot those of the Cape Epic, which she is targeting in March.

Stage 2

Stage 2 will cover 60km through a volcanic landscape in the Natural Park of Timanfaya.

Full Results for stage 1 and General classification after stage 1