David de la Cruz rolls back the years to claim Spanish Men’s National Time Trial title

David de la Cruz (Image credit: Getty Images)

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David de la Cruz (Q36.5) has rolled back the years to claim the Spanish National Time Trial Champion’s jersey on Friday, dominating a hilly 33-kilometre course near Madrid.

Riding on the same rugged course as the Elite Women’s time trial, held earlier in the day, De la Cruz finished 33 seconds clear of 18-year-old Markel Beloki (EF Education-EasyPost), with former National TT Champion Raúl García Pierna (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) in third, 36 seconds back.

Key pre-race favourite Oier Lazkano (Movistar), second last year, did not have his best day, and finished two seconds outside the medals.

"I'm really happy, in 2021 I only lost the title by less than a second, and that leaves you with a sense of unfinished business," De la Cruz said in an interview provided by the Spanish Cycling Federation.

"I knew I had a good chance this year, but I suffered a lot out there on the course. It was a really hard one, these last few days we've had a tailwind blowing in the last part coming into the finish, but today it was virtually flat calm, so I really suffered."

"I was telling myself - today has to be the day, today has to be the day, because maybe I won't have the same chance again. I'm just really happy and I can hardly believe it's true."

Alasdair Fotheringham has been reporting on cycling since 1991. He has covered every Tour de France since 1992 bar one, as well as numerous other bike races of all shapes and sizes, ranging from the Olympic Games in 2008 to the now sadly defunct Subida a Urkiola hill climb in Spain. As well as working for Cyclingnews, he has also written for The Independent, The Guardian, ProCycling, The Express and Reuters.