{"id":7640,"date":"2025-02-10T14:55:04","date_gmt":"2025-02-10T13:55:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/?p=7640"},"modified":"2025-02-18T14:59:30","modified_gmt":"2025-02-18T13:59:30","slug":"buitrago-wins-volta-a-la-communitat-valenciana-as-almeida-uae-falter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/2025\/02\/10\/buitrago-wins-volta-a-la-communitat-valenciana-as-almeida-uae-falter\/","title":{"rendered":"Buitrago Wins Volta a La Communitat Valenciana as Almeida, UAE Falter"},"content":{"rendered":"

Santiago Buitrago led a rampant Bahrain Victorious team by winning two stages, the green jersey and the GC of the five-stage Volta a La Comunitat Valenciana, which ended Sunday in Valencia.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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As the team was delighted to point out on its website<\/a>, its dominant performance, led by the 25-year-old Colombian, also included two second-place stage finishes and two of the three GC podium places, as home rider Pello Bilbao finished third, 39 seconds behind his teammate. Pre-race favorite Jo\u00e3o Almeida, of last year\u2019s all-conquering UAE Team Emirates\u2013XRG, finished second in the race, 18 seconds adrift.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a fantastic feeling,\u201d Buitrago was quoted as saying on the team\u2019s website. \u201cI was already super happy after yesterday\u2019s [Saturday\u2019s stage 4] result and to wear the leader\u2019s jersey this morning, but you never know until the very end. I have to give a huge thank you to my teammates. Today could have been tricky, but they worked exceptionally well to keep everything under control. I share this GC victory with them. Starting the season with such a result is incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n

The final stage, 104.2 flat kilometers from Alfafar to Valencia, was always going to end in a bunch sprint, which was won by the odds-on favorite, Jonathan Milan (Lidl-Trek). In a race with few top sprinters, and with potential rival Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck) dropping out before the start of the stage, it was always going to be there for the taking for the two-time Giro d\u2019Italia points classification winner. And he made no mistake, powering over the line well ahead of second-place finisher Jake Stewart (Israel\u2013Premier Tech).<\/p>\n

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A post shared by Team Bahrain Victorious (@teambahrainvictorious)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n