MADRID, 10 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Spanish cycling team climbed twice to the podium of the European Track Championships in Grenchen (Switzerland) this Thursday with the silver medals achieved by Albert Torres, in the scoring, and Alejandro Martínez, in the CRI kilometer.
Spain, which won another continental subchampionship on Wednesday at the hands of Eukene Larrarte in the scratch, did not get off the podium on the second day at the Swiss velodrome. In addition, the women’s pursuit quartet set a new national record (4:26.621).
“The first word that comes to my mind is happiness. I’ve always liked the track very much, it’s true that since Tokyo I’ve run less on the track, but coming back in this European Championship and getting a medal is an immense joy. I give a lot of value to this silver, I have really enjoyed this score and it gives me the confidence to continue working in this line”, Torres said in statements to the Royal Spanish Cycling Federation (RFEC).
Torres achieved the first metal of the day with a great and brave performance in scoring, where he was the first to attack and was in charge of winning the last sprint. The Menorcan offered an intense battle with Simone Consonni, Donavan Grondin, Robbe Ghys and William Perret, among others, for trying to get on the podium.
The Spaniard reached the last ten laps in third place behind Consonni and Grondin. The Frenchman was exhausted after winning the lap and scoring 20 points, just as the Spaniard and the Italian had done shortly before, who kept the champion’s jersey.
Shortly after it was the turn of the CRI kilometer final, to which Alejandro Martínez had entered as second after registering his personal best in qualifying (59.501). In the final, the Spanish sprinter almost nailed his time trial to become runner-up in Europe. “I am super grateful to the Federation, to all my team at home. I had a lot of confidence in myself, I know that I am capable of doing practically the same time in the morning and then again in the afternoon,” he said.
“After being second in the morning qualifying, I knew that the medal was at my fingertips and that I couldn’t miss it. In the end, I’ve achieved it and I’m super happy. It’s a very suitable velodrome to set a time under a minute. My objective was to improve myself, offer the best version of myself and then see what the others did. In this case, I have managed to improve a position with respect to the World Cup against practically the same rivals, so I am very happy”, added.
In addition, in the morning session, Tania Calvo, Eukene Larrarte, Isabel Ferreres and Laura Rodríguez improved another second and a half the record they achieved on Wednesday in qualifying, a new Spanish record for team pursuit, despite their dismissal in the first round against Swiss.