Time bonuses add up to overall win for Lopez at Tour Colombia
18 February 2019 03:18
Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana) claimed the overall win at the Tour Colombia 2.1 on Sunday atop Alto las Palmas, taking third on the final stage behind Nairo Quintana (Movistar) and Ivan Sosa (Team Sky) and beating Sosa by four seconds in the general classification. But Lopez's win was really earned on Friday during the stage 4 circuit race in Medellín, where the 25-year-old Colombian infiltrated the day-long breakaway and claimed eight seconds in time bonuses at the intermediate sprints. Those bonus seconds proved to be the difference for the final podium. "We knew from the beginning that this race was going to play out like the previous year, fighting for a few seconds, even in the bonuses, and that day in Medellín we raced intelligently and were able to get eight seconds, which proved invaluable in the end," Lopez said in the post-race press conference.ADVERTISEMENT Not that Sunday's stage was without drama. Lopez and Sosa battled to the end for the overall, ceding the stage win to Quintana as the two played a game of cat and mouse that allowed the Movistar rider to catch and then overtake them after a careless spectator knocked Quintana out of the select four-rider group that also included Team Sky's Egan Bernal. While Sosa's and Quintana's rhythms were interrupted as they had to clip out and put a foot down, Lopez and Bernal initially continued on until Bernal dropped back to pull his teammate back into contention for the overall. Sosa said he didn't notice the melee behind him as he drove the group and simply pressed on with his pace. "Well, I didn't give much thought to that moment," he said. "I was pulling the group and I saw that a spectator had dropped his cell phone, but I didn't turn to look, and instead continued on with my rhythm."
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