MADRID, 1 May. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Spanish cyclist Luis León Sánchez, from the Kosner-Saltoki Home team, won this Wednesday the fourth stage of the Skoda Titan Desert Morocco 2024, contested between M’Ssici and Erg Chebbi over 119 kilometers, and has regained the lead in the general classification , with an advantage of more than 7 minutes over his immediate pursuer.
After kilometer 90, Luisle Sánchez attacked to try to surprise Sergio Mantecón, leader until this Wednesday. Thus, the Murcian hunted the escapee who was ahead of the favorites and threw himself into an open grave. Almost 30 kilometers ahead and alone, but without shyness and without conservatism, they opened that seven-minute distance.
Konny Looser, double winner of the Titan Desert, praised Mula at the finish line: “He looks like a professional running with juniors.” Luisle Sánchez himself explained to his team the sensations experienced throughout this stage 4: “It was what we found in Saudi Arabia: many sandbanks, a long stage, a lot of heat…”.
“They had told me that today’s stage and tomorrow’s stage were different, that today’s stage was more similar to what we had found in Saudi Arabia and that tomorrow they will be pure, hard dunes. Tomorrow the navigation issue will have a lot of influence and we will see if we can save the day,” added Sánchez, who last Monday already won stage 2, held between Boumalne Dades and Tourza.
Sánchez also summarized the reasons for his attack this Wednesday. “There were three stages left, I knew that the most favorable in quotes was today’s, because tomorrow I am inexperienced in dunes and the last one was too short and I couldn’t cut much time. I had in mind to try it today, to see if it could be, and everything has turned out well,” he said about it.
Meanwhile, in the women’s event, the Dutch Tessa Kortekaas added her fourth consecutive victory and made the ‘top 20’ in the absolute stage classification after having had help from her team, Cannondale ISB Sport. The Targari Josep Termens, for example, pulled it for several kilometers.
Little fight remains in the general classification for women, since 42 minutes separate the Dutch from the Spanish Pilar Fernández (KH-7); The podium is completed, more than an hour away, by the Estonian Greete Steinburg (Skoda We Love Cycling). Kortekaas’s competition no longer seems to be against the other cyclists, but rather against the desert and against herself.