Pablo Castrillo pays tribute to Manuel Azcona by giving a victory to Kern Pharma in La Vuelta 2024

Sometimes sport is fair and today it has been not only with one of the riders who is demonstrating more capacity for suffering throughout La Vuelta a España 2024, such as Pablo Castrillo, but also with a Kern Pharma that is having a great race on a day that dawned tremendously sad for the team after learning of the death of the soul of its structure, Manuel Azcona, one of the people who has done the most to create a cycling base in Spain.

Emotional victory for Pablo Castrillo that does justice to the work of Kern Pharma in La Vuelta 2024

With the current level of cycling, where World Tour teams make the difference by having the best cyclists, a level that only the highest-level Pro Teams like Israel, Lotto, or Uno-X can approach as they aspire to a place in the top category. For the rest of the Pro Teams, participation in the Grand Tours usually gives them a role little more than extras, to add color to breakaways and some secondary classifications, but it is extremely difficult for them to achieve a victory against the monsters of the peloton.

A little context to highlight the tremendous triumph achieved today by Pablo Castrillo, who, after filtering through those always "high-level" breakaways throughout La Vuelta 2024, after suffering immensely a few days ago in the Sierra Nevada stage, achieved a memorable victory today on the day when the Kern Pharma team woke up to the sad news of Manuel Azcona's death.

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A Manuel Azcona who is the sporting father of half the Spanish peloton, betting for 30 years on the base, with the creation of the Galibier Sports Association, always with amateur teams, in recent times, the powerful Lizarte that for years was something like the B team of the Movistar structure until they finally fulfilled the dream of creating a professional structure a few years ago with the creation of Kern Pharma. During these years, more than 70 cyclists managed to reach professionalism after training sportingly under the umbrella of Manuel Azcona. Rest in peace.

Focusing on the race, a new day of rolling terrain in Galician lands, today in the province of Orense around the Sil River and the spectacular landscapes of the Ribeira Sacra towards the Manzaneda Mountain Station, the only climb of a short stage of only 133 kilometers.

And, for the third consecutive day, a crazy start to the stage with many cyclists trying to get into breakaways that, as La Vuelta a España 2024 progresses, become more expensive. However, unlike days ago, it took only 20 kilometers for a group led by Marc Soler to form, with high-level cyclists such as Óscar Rodríguez, Mauri Vansevenant, Carlos Verona, Mauro Schmid, Max Poole, or Pablo Castrillo.

However, the fight continued for a good number of kilometers while attacks continued from behind, even forming a second group in pursuit with Wout van Aert that seemed like they could reach the front. But the peloton did not like this move and ended up neutralizing them, and with the momentum, they almost managed to catch up with the leading group. But instead of giving up, Marc Soler attacked again at that precise moment, giving an extra life that would finally turn into the breakaway of the day when, finally, the peloton lifted their foot and their lead began to grow, even going beyond 10 minutes.

The race proceeded calmly from then on, with the focus already on the 15 kilometers of ascent to Manzaneda, a gradual climb on good road that gains slope as it approaches its end to offer some demanding final kilometers, around 8% on average, but without any significant ramps. One of those ports conducive to seeing battles in a breakaway as we were able to enjoy.

From the start of the climb, it was Marc Soler who spent the most energy trying to seek victory, although his attacks were immediately countered. After one of them, Carlos Verona took advantage to attack and manage to keep pace with his pursuers, although ultimately it was Marc Soler himself who thwarted his attempt with about 10 km to go.

At that moment, there was a small pause and, without thinking twice, despite having suffered immensely in the previous kilometers to close the gaps, just as we saw him do in the Sierra Nevada stage, Pablo Castrillo decided to attack all or nothing knowing that he would be one of the least watched cyclists.

He managed to open a twenty-second gap and only Mauro Schmid decided to go after him, although evidence that the Huesca cyclist was riding with good legs is that the Swiss was left in no man's land. Jhonatán Narváez attacked a few kilometers later after the good work of Óscar Rodríguez setting the pace, and Max Poole went with him. Both easily caught up with Schmid and it seemed they would easily catch Pablo Castrillo.

But, unexpectedly, Marc Soler jumped from behind and, in turn, easily caught up with the chasing trio. The arrival of the man everyone thought was the strongest made the vigilance return and gave the necessary boost to Pablo Castrillo, who managed to resist in the last three kilometers of true agony.

 

 

 

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However, he managed to cross the finish line victorious and, in tears, dedicated this hard-fought victory to Manuel Azcona. Yes, sometimes cycling is fair and today it has been with Pablo and with Kern Pharma. Bravo to them.

Stage 12 Classification

1. Pablo Castrillo (Kern Pharma) 3h36'12''
2. Max Poole (DSM-Firmenich-PostNL) +08''
3. Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates) +16''
4. Mauro Schmid (Jayco-AlUla) +23''
5. Jhonatán Narváez (INEOS Grenadiers) +34''
6. Mauri Vansevenant (TRex-QuickStep) +40''
7. Harold Tejada (Astana) +49''
8. Carlos Verona (Lidl-Trek) +1'03''
9. Louis Meintjes (Intermarché-Wanty) +1'14''
10. Óscar Rodríguez (INEOS Grenadiers) +1'52''

General Classification

1. Ben O'Connor (Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale) 47h37'35''
2. Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) +3'16''
3. Enric Mas (Movistar Team) +3'58''
4. Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) +4'10''
5. Mikel Landa (TRex-QuickStep) +4'40''
6. Carlos Rodríguez (INEOS Grenadiers) +5'23''
7. Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) +5'29''
8. Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates) +5'30''
9. Felix Gall (Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale) +5'30''
10. George Bennett (Israel-PremierTech) +5'46''