Santos made an extraordinary closing with dominance of the mountain section, the most demanding of the entire 133-kilometre route, and managed to prevail in the heights of Almolonga.
With this, the member of the Canel’s team left behind the Colombian and Ecuadorian favorites and made a time of 03:53:48, escorted by Robinson Chalapud from Team Banco Guayaquil and Cristian Cubides from the local Hino, who entered the second and third place, respectively.
And although Mexico took the glory of the queen stage, Montenegro was another of today’s protagonists, since he took the leader’s sweater of the individual general classification from Aldemar Reyes, from the Medellín team, two days before the closing of the also called here Vuelta del Bicentenario or Vuelta Bantrab.
With the experience of having run this third section nine years ago, the Banco Guayaquil team member confessed that it was quite hard, but he knew it well and knew where he could attack.
Now it’s time to enjoy this moment and then study how we are going to defend ourselves from here to the end, he told the press accompanying the multicolored caravan.
As for the flying goal prizes, the Guatemalans Julio Padilla (Optics Deluxe) and Dorian Monterroso (Decorabaños) once again showed their power.
Padilla repeated and took the first mountain prize, without being his specialty; although it was the climbers who took control of the route until they reached the finish line, in the Quetzaltenango park.
The Mexican Santos dominated the entire ascent, accompanied by his teammate Heiner Parra and behind them, the national Cristian Cubides del Hino, and Montenegro. In the end, the Aztec team could only consecrate itself in the stage, because the Ecuadorians took charge of taking control of the race and looking for the leader’s sweater through this last rider.
Tomorrow the fourth stage will be run, 135.5 kilometers, from San Francisco El Alto to the center of the heart of the Piedra María Tecún forest, in the southern department of Totonicapán, the prelude to the closing, next Sunday, after crossing at least eight departments of the country.
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