Coach accepts that Portugal wanted ″more″ in the cycling race
Selector José Poeira de Nelson better, this Sunday, that Portugal wanted “more” road race of the World Championships, qualifying Oliveira was the runners.ª position.
“We want the course not to favor us. race, was the possible result”, conceded the Portuguese coach, quoted in a statement from the Portuguese Cycling Federation.
The experienced Nelson Oliveira was the best of the national representatives in the long-distance event of the World Championships in Wollongong (Australia), arriving in 44th place, 3.01 minutes from Belgian Remco Evenepoel, the new world champion, while João Almeida, ‘head of queue champion ‘ of the selection, was only 60th, at 5.16.
“He also believes that today the health problem that João Almeida had and prevented him from participating in the time trial also made that not so strong. this problem may have influenced his performance”, estimates José Poeira, referring to the problems gastrointestinal symptoms and fever that the fifth fifth of the Vuelta presented on arrival on arrival.
After placing Nelson Oliveira and Ivo Oliveira in the lead group, in the first move “orchestrated” by France, the great “dynamizer” of the day, Portugal “failed” the successful attack of the group that followed Evenepoel, about 70 kilometers from the finish line. .
“When the attack took place, it was still very early and this escape could not have been thought of for certain.
The coach revealed that, at that time, the national team already had Rui Oliveira, who “had a breakdown in his bike when the group tried to form a peloton behind the group where Remco had left”.
“This problem arose at a complicated time of the race, when there were a lot of movements, when he had to change to a terrain he was never able to recover that in the final sprint Rui could have done a good result, but the circumstances of the race and this mishap he had didn’t allow him to be there,” he said.
Rui Oliveira did not finish the race, unlike his brother Ivo, who was 83rd, 9.31 behind the winner. Belgian cyclist Remco Evenepoel was crowned world champion, as he isolated the finish at the end of the ‘queen’ of the Road Cycling World Cups, which took place in Wollongong, Australia.
The 22-year-old Belgian isolated himself in the last 25 kilometers of the 266.9 of the distance race and crossed the finish line with a time of 6:16.08 hours, leaving the peloton, led by Frenchman Christophe Laporte, silver, and Australian Michael Matthews. , bronze, at 2.21 minutes.
The Volta da Vencedor, which succeeds Frenchman Julian Alaphilippe, his teammate at Alpha Vinyl, in the honors, adds to his rainbow title in the world elites – which succeeded in Spain from the United States in 2018, in 2018, becoming the second North cyclist to him after American Greg LeMond.