III Criterium Toledo Recap

Wednesday, April 27th, 2016Saturday, April 11th, 2020 by Stefano Rizzardi

After the first round with the Criterium la Vall d’ Uixó and Criterium Santander, the third stop of the national calendar is Toledo which took place few days ago in the grounds of the brewery Domus which puts its name to the race.

The Criterium Domus Ciudad de Toledo since its first edition has highlighted by the good organization and in the last three years has become one of the important events and an icon of the Spanish fixed gear outlook.

Thanks to Luis Martin (part of the Organization of the Criterium Toledo) and Marco Hita (member of the RAW Santafixie Team) we have tried to reconstruct how was the event and the race from two different points of view, on the one hand the more analytical aspect and detail-oriented, on the other, all the explosiveness and the adrenaline that the ride lived on board fighting for the top positions.

BEHIND THE SCENE

Luís: “The event started on Friday with a party, rollers and a lot of beer. Saturday, the day of the race, we started soon with the preparations and the number delivery at 9:00 and qualify at 11:00. Unfortunately there was no woman qualify, so we started with the man B Final at 17:00 and at 18:00 the main race.
We are very pleased of the attendance, in total 79 registered (51 in the A final), many teams as POLOANDBIKE, Santa Catalina, De Que Bikes, RAW Santafixie Team, Fixed and Chill, Velocycles Crew, Iride, Dafne Fixed and The bike club Barcelona. The race was spectacular!”

ON BOARD

Marco: “from the first lap the race was very fast. All positioned in the start-line according the qualify order. In the last meters of the first lap Unai Álvarez of the team The bike Club is positioned in first place and win the “prime” (Prize of the first lap). Completed the first lap, no calm in the bunch otherwise it was quite the opposite; the first attacks happen however the intensity does not get a consistent advantage.On the fourth lap, I decide to escape the bunch in the final part of the circuit, after the 180 ° loop, I can take a few meters quickly and maintain the advantage during 4-5 laps. Team POLOANDBIKE, with three members in the main group, Luis, Pablo and Emilio, manage to organize the group to reduce the distance and absorb my attack.At this point the main group has been reduced to 10 riders: the guys from POLOANDBIKE, Unai (The Bike club), Miqui Rueda (Team Dafne Fixed), Leo (De Que bikes), Hugo Huerga (Santa Catalina), Carlos Beltrán (IRIDE), Adrián Rodríguez (Velocycles Crew) and Manuel Núñez alias “El Bomba” (Arrueda x Mfactory) and, of course, I (RAW Santafixie Team).
No many changes until the end in the situation of this group, some shy attack that doesn’t get much difference, Pablo Rodríguez battle it out, I try to escape again but without success, to few laps of the end “El Bomba” falls into the 180º loop, being eliminated one of the favorite for the podium. The pace and the vigilance to each other increase in the last laps, until in the last meters Miqui Rueda (Dafne) starts the sprint, being overtaken in the last meters by Luis Junqueras and Emilio López of POLOANDBIKE, I finally finish in fourth position very close to the first classified and with good feelings.”

RESULTS:

Pro: