{"id":189516,"date":"2022-05-16T12:31:21","date_gmt":"2022-05-16T12:31:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/?p=189516"},"modified":"2022-05-25T09:07:04","modified_gmt":"2022-05-25T09:07:04","slug":"some-takeaways-from-the-2022-skoda-titan-desert-morocco","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/wide\/2022\/05\/16\/some-takeaways-from-the-2022-skoda-titan-desert-morocco\/","title":{"rendered":"Some Takeaways from the 2022 \u0160koda Titan Desert Morocco"},"content":{"rendered":"

If there\u2019s one lesson to take away from the 2022 \u0160koda Titan Desert Morocco, which ended on Friday, it\u2019s that nothing succeeds like success. The winners of the men\u2019s and women\u2019s GC had both won this gruelling six-stage MTB race before, and that gave them both the confidence and the experience to repeat.<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

That was especially true for 33-year-old Swiss rider Konny Looser who won last year\u2019s edition of the race. Going into the final stage of this year\u2019s \u0160koda Titan Desert, he trailed Spaniard Francisco Herrero by only 3 seconds,<\/a> the time he had lost on the first-stage sprint. But with just 3 km to go on the 76-km run from Erg Chebbi to the finish line at Maadid, Looser decided to make a bold move by leaving the marked trail and taking what he hoped would be a shortcut.<\/p>\n

And so it proved to be. He made up 15 seconds on Herrero and won the race by the smallest winning margin ever, a measly 12 seconds. After the finish, Looser said his experience from last year\u2019s race was instrumental in his victory. \u201cI knew from last year that there was a detour near the finish line,\u201d he explained. \u201cI went for it and I didn\u2019t know if Herrero would follow me or not. When I saw no one, I pressed on and did not look back. It was so hard I almost gave up a few times but you never want to give up.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Titan<\/a>
\u0160koda Titan Desert is one of a kind race.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It was a brutal loss for Herrero who broke down at the finish when he realized that the race he had been leading from the start had just slipped out of his grasp. \u201cI felt pressure all week,\u201d he said, \u201cbut we controlled the race well and I was able to withstand all the attacks. I had the legs to beat Konny but I also knew that anything could happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

He admitted that the key to his loss was Looser\u2019s last-minute move but he was at peace with himself. \u201cI\u2019m calm. I gave it my all. I will be back,\u201d said the Spaniard, whose disappointment was mitigated somewhat by two partial personal victories and four victories by his Cannondale TB team over the six days \u2013 including the victory in that decisive final stage by his Spanish teammate Pablo Guerrero. Another Spaniard, 39-year-old Julen Zubero, came in third in the race, more than 7 minutes behind Herrero \u2013 which shows how much of a two-man race it was.<\/p>\n

We should also note the excellent performances by several former WorldTour road race standouts. For example, Haimar Zubeldia finished 12th, more than 1 hour and 9 minutes behind the winner, Frenchman Sylvain Chavanel came in 15th, more than 15 minutes behind Zubeldia, and Manuel Beltr\u00e1n finished 18th, 20 minutes farther down.<\/p>\n

On the women\u2019s side, the race was won by a cyclist who apparently does not know how to lose. The 41-year-old Spaniard Anna Ram\u00edrez has now won all four Titan Deserts in which she has participated, adding the 2022 victory to her wins in 2015, 2017 and 2019. She won the GC by nearly 6 minutes, an impressive margin.<\/p>\n

The rider who finished behind Ram\u00edrez has a familiar name, Vera Looser. Vera and her husband Konny appear to want to make the \u0160koda Titan Desert<\/a> a regular part of their family trophy case. For that, she may have to eventually beat Ram\u00edrez who now shares the record of most Titan Desert victories with the great Josep Betal\u00fa. A former double national road champion (in 2003 and 2014), Ram\u00edrez won three stages of this year\u2019s \u0160koda Titan Desert.<\/a> But she is not certain if she will race again next year. \u201cI am so happy with this fourth win,\u201d she said. It wasn\u2019t that easy because I also had some bad luck. I don\u2019t know if I\u2019ll be back next year because I appear every year but it\u2019s a race that is always special.\u201c Ramona Gabriel finished third, nearly one hour behind the winner.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If there\u2019s one lesson to take away from the 2022 \u0160koda Titan Desert Morocco, which ended on Friday, it\u2019s that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":99,"featured_media":189517,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[328],"tags":[6136,6132,6350,6339,6135,2970,6349],"global-categories":[3366],"class_list":["post-189516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-outdoor-mountain","tag-2022-skoda-titan-desert","tag-anna-ramirez","tag-julen-zubero","tag-konny-looser","tag-sylvain-chavanel","tag-titan-desert","tag-vera-looser","global-categories-cycling"],"yoast_head":"\nSome Takeaways from the 2022 \u0160koda Titan Desert Morocco<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"If there\u2019s one lesson to take away from the 2022 \u0160koda Titan Desert Morocco, which ended on Friday, it\u2019s that nothing succeeds like success. 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