Belda escapes to win Castilla y Leon stage 2

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After ten years of career in the lower stages of Spanish cycling, David Belda (Burgos BH) obtained today his biggest victory so far in the second stage of the Vuelta a Castilla y León, a summit finish in the Alto de Lubián, a 7 kilometer long climb with double digits gradients that surrounds a wind farm. Belda defeated Caja Rural's Marcos García and Movistar Team's Sylwester Szmyd by attacking with 5 kilometers to go and building a margin of 53 seconds, which also constitutes his advantage in the general classification.

Despite his experience and long standing presence in the Spanish peloton, this is the Belda's first victory in a race ranked .1 or above. Best known for being the son of Vicente Belda, former manager of Kelme and Comunidad Valenciana, he is also famous for his inherited light frame (he is hardly 1,60m tall and rides a 48-size bike frame) and his hardiness when facing the heavier slopes.

This success is very special for Burgos BH crew, being the Vuelta a Castilla y León one of its two local races, along with Vuelta a Burgos. Now their challenge is to keep the overall lead in the last stage, set to be held tomorrow, with a 165 kilometers route from Lubián to Bembibre that features five categorised climbs.

Shortly after finishing the stage, undeterred of the general mood of joy, Belda proved to be shrewd and stated: “The hardest part comes tomorrow. I'm sure Movistar Team and Caja Rural didn't enjoy being defeated by a Continental team and will try to beat us from the first kilometer of the closing stage”.

Aside of the final climb to Alto de Lubián, the second stage of the Vuelta a Castilla y León wasn't really demanding, mostly flat in spite of slightly gaining elevation towards the final 20 kilometers, where the Alto del Padronello (a category 2 climb) warmed up the legs before the summit finish. In addition, a favorable wind provoked the speed to be high. The breakaway was formed relatively early by Darío Hernández (Burgos BH), Beñat Txoperena (Euskadi) and Diego Rubio (Efapel), who were later joined by Silvio Giorni (Area Zero) and Dominican rider Augusto Sánchez (Differdange). The peloton never let their gap grow beyond four minutes, and caught them with 30 kilometers to go.

The Padronello climb was ruled by Caja Rural, which set an high pace that gradually slimmed the bunch until the foot of Alto de Lubián. Only ten riders were standing then, and the battle was soon initiated by Efapel's Ricardo Mestre, whose attack was immediately replied by Sylvester Szmyd. Those were only fireworks before Belda's winning move, which tore the race apart; onward, it was every man for himself until the finish line.

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