Molano’s sprint triumph in the Vuelta a Espana stage

On the way to the inevitable sprint of Zaragoza – victory for the Colombian from Paipa, his lagoon in Boyaca, his name as a conqueror, Juan Sebastian Molano – time seems to stop. The platoon flies at 44 per hour and it seems that it is standing still, so much need for speed It generates, almost addiction, abuse. Yawns. Time that does not pass, in which nothing happens. It doesn’t even seem to pass the landscape, which repeats in a loop. He surrounds the Moncayo, which does not blow or scare like other times, and Egan Bernal, uncomfortable, is already stuck in the tail, in the tip of the whip that takes him from one side to the other. The psychedelic Monegros, to the left of him. The Ebro. Heat wave heat. He plays pedal. Late summer. Imagination, in the Pyrenees. The next day. The Tourmalet that also expects to be hot. More than 20 degrees, they say, will heat up at the top. Not even in July on the Tour like that. But in the Tour, arriving at the Tourmalet, the heart of Sepp Kuss, the gregarious leader, accelerates so much, anxiety, anticipation. The third man of the Jumbo. “My leaders, Jonas Vingegaard and Primoz Roglic, have experience, they know how to win,” says the cyclist from Durango, Colorado, in his peculiar Spanish. “For me, every day as a leader is a step into territory I have never set foot on. “I don’t know how far I can go, but I have a lot of confidence in myself and I will try to win the race.” He hopes that Remco Evenepoel will attack to antagonize him, and leave behind the Spaniards, Juan Ayuso, who hurts everything after Wednesday’s fall, and sleeps badly; to Enric Mas, who is waiting for the wave.

Time only beats at the end. Finish line in Villanueva, next to Gallego. The Jumbos open their eyes, the only ones, and Roglic sprints to win 4s. He is already only 23s behind Remco. He never tires of harassing the fiery Belgian. Molano UAE measures time. They wait, patiently, for their time, in the Maria Agustin arch, past the false Mudejar of the bullring. Marc Soler, who multiplies in the mountains in support of Ayuso and Almeida, places Molano behind Rui Oliveira. They stick to the left. They neutralize the Alpecin of Kaden Groves. They calmly wait for their time and when he arrives, Molano shouts, come on, it’s time, to the Portuguese. “I made my good watts. He left me in position. I just had to push and win,” says Molano, already a winner in Cibeles in 2022. “It was the big day.”

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