Endura’s Iker Camaño wins Cinturón Internacional first stage
Spaniard Iker Camaño won today’s first stage of the Cinturón Internaciona a Mallorca, adding another victory to Endura’s tally two weeks after Alexandre Blain won the overall classification the Tour of Normandy.
Camaño now lies second in the overall classification behind Jose Belda, who finished in the same group as him on today’s stagebut beat him by fifteen seconds in yesterday’s prologue.
Today’s stage was a tough one, with a mammoth one thousand metre climb up the Coll de Puig Major coming seventy kilometers in.
Camaño was in a chasing group with Belda and one other rider pursuing a one-man breakaway coming over the top of the climb. The Endura rider and his companions reached the leader with ten kilometers to go.
“In the lasts kilometers of the climb a rider overtook us and we decided that the best thing to do was to work together, because the difference was around two minutes at the top of the mountain,” Camaño said. “In the last kilometre I moved into first position. With five hundred metres to go nobody moved and I decided start the sprint one hundred and fifty metres before the finish. I had some good luck and crossed the line in first position.”
The Cinturón Internacional a Mallorca has hosted a British invasion this week, with Rapha-Condor-Sharp, Endura, Raleigh, Pendragon-le-Col-Colnago and Motorpoint all sending teams to the event.
Ian Bibby (Motorpoint) is another Brit to have performed well, finishing second in the prologue, narrowly missing victory by two seconds.