At only 500 meters he stayed Matteo Jorgenson, the American Movistar rider, to be able to achieve his first victory in the Tour de France. His legs told him enough in that final stretch and he finished in fourth position. As soon as you cross the finish line, and assisted by Juan Carlos Escámez, spoke with his brother, who is in the Netherlands, by phone: “How close I stayed.” Later, he had to go to the podium as the most combative runner and pass the anti-doping control. He formed ‘the fugue of the fuga’, a habitual phrase of its director Chente García Acosta after jumping from the group 46 km from the finish line.
“I did this climb with Enric Mas months ago (The American held the ascent time record on the Strava app) and I knew it would be very difficult, especially the last few kilometres. He was in the group with people like Woods, Powless… who They knew they were going to climb faster than me because I weigh more (he measures 1.91), so he had to try it from afar. I put in a great effort for an hour and they caught me with 500 meters to go. This is life. The good thing is that the form is there, we are going further and there are still opportunities in the second and third week”, said the Movistar player.