Back to back for Alleman and Rabenstreiner and a hat-trick for Wakefield and Lüthi

The Wilier-Pirelli couple gets their second win in a row, but the leaders maintain their time differences. In the women’s category, the leaders are even more leaders.

After the two first stages that took place in Jaén, the twelfth edition of the Andalucía Bike Race by GARMIN moved to Andújar, where the third stage will take place. A classic route, but that doesn’t mean boring, it will be a mixture of trails and technical downhills that end up in the famous Caracolillos, just to go back to Andújar again.

A stage of about 70km and 1800m with a final sprint won by Wout Alleman and Fabian Rabensteiner, ahead of the BUFF Megamo Team pair, Hans Becking and José Dias, and the leaders of the race.

The pace was similar to yesterday’s, fast from the beginning to select the group and reduce it until the finishing line. It was after the second feed zone, where Alleman and Rabensteiner broke off the group definitely to get to the finish line alongside the other two couples.

“Today’s stage was very technical. We knew that it could be decided in the sprint again so we tried to save up energy and find the perfect opportunity for the final sprint and it worked again!”, a smiley Alleman said after their win.

In the women’s category, the pace was very similar to the two first stages with Lüthi and Wakefield dominating since the start of the stage, opening up space in the ups and managing the downhills to conserve the mechanics.

“We had the lead early on and we wanted to put pressure on our rivals in the technical parts. That’s where we are comfortable”, explained Lüthi after the podium.

From this moment onwards, the race will move to Córdoba for the last three and more decisive stages. Tomorrow’s will be a time trial, it’s one of the newelties for this year’s edition. It’s a 30k TT, at the halfway point of the race and that will challenge every single one of the riders.

“Tomorrow we will give it our all. We feel pretty good and I think that we can get a good result”, assured the Belgian. On the other hand, Lüthi spoke in the same lines: “You have to go as far as your legs allow you to. We’re all a little bit tired, but we have to keep up a fast pace and we want to win the stage, of course.”

STAGE STANDINGS - UCI MARATHON SERIES MEN

Wout Alleman - Fabian Rabensteiner WILIER-PIRELLI FACTORY TEAM MX 02:46:58

Hans Becking - José Dias BUFF MEGAMO MTB TEAM 02:47:00

Andreas Seewald - Martin Stosek CANYON NORTHWAVE MTB TEAM 02:47:01

OVERALL STANDINGS - UCI MARATHON SERIES MEN

Andreas Seewald - Martin Stosek CANYON NORTHWAVE MTB TEAM 08:22:37

Wout Alleman - Fabian Rabensteiner WILIER-PIRELLI FACTORY TEAM MX 08:24:14

Hans Becking - José Dias BUFF Megamo MTB TEAM 08:28:04

STAGE STANDINGS - UCI MARATHON SERIES WOMEN

Amy Wakefield - Ariane Lüthi Symbtech / Pump for Peace 03:33:43

Constanza Fasolis - Claudia Peretti Olympia - RDR Italy 03:36:25

Irina Lützelschwab - Janine Schneider Team BULLS / doc.oliday.com 03:36:25