PINAR DEL RIO, Cuba, Dec 7 (acn) Cuban Marlies Mejías maintained her status as leader in the Titan Tropic mountain bike race when winning the second stage, a 111-kilometer stretch between the towns of Soroa and Viñales.
Mejias, who won with time of 5:14.17 hours, told reporters she hopes to continue fighting to leave in Cuba the trophy that reached last year her teammate Olga Echenique.
The latter scored Mejias´ same time, and finished second followed by Spanish Nuria Picas (5: 14.21), who remains second in the general classification escorted by Echenique.
The battle is crueler in the men´s event due to the quality and amount of contestants, and even so the locals Yoandri Freire and Álvaro Soca concluded again among the leaders by finishing second (4: 07.57) and fifth (4: 09.30), respectively.
The winner was the 23-year-old Spaniard Roberto Bou (4: 02.55), who in 2015 was teammate of Colombian Diego Tamayo, last year monarch and winner of the first stage, who finished third with time of 4:09.29 hours and remains leader of the general classification.
Today is the third and penultimate stage, an 82-kilometer circuit around Viñales hillocks through paths and trails which will require great technical skill of the riders due to the climbs they will make for rocky terrain.
That is why this segment is called the queen stage because of its hardness and characteristics, and last year its result virtually defined the winners of the first Titan Tropic in Cuba.
Nos reservamos el derecho de no publicar los comentario que incumplan con las normas de este sitio