Ferreira-Becking and McConnel-Michiels win the Costa Blanca Bike Race 2020

The Costa Blanca Bike Race 2020 ended with more excitement than expected for a final day where flat tires, falls and attacks set the pace. Tiago Ferreira and Hans Becking of the DMT Racing Team in the men's elite category, and Bec McConnell and Githa Michiels in the women's elite category are the new champions of the sixth edition of the race.

Tiago Ferreira and Hans Becking win after fighting more than expected in the final stage

The fourth day of the Costa Blanca Bike Race 2020 got off to a flying start with the sunshine from the Altea sports centre. A stage of 62 km and more than 1180 meters of difference in level by the surroundings of La Nucía. A route that the organization had to improvise after the last storm and has finally become the most demanding of the race.

In the men's category, the race broke down almost completely at the start of the day, when at kilometre 4 the pair of Buff Scott who were defending second place overall suffered a fall and ended up with a mechanical breakdown on the mountain bike of the Swiss Kony Looser. They were still far from the technical area where they could repair it and this left them practically without options to continue fighting for the podium.

The day got even more complicated for the Buff Scott team when at kilometre 8 the winning couple from the previous stage, Sánchez-Guerra, suffered another hard fall which ended with Francesc Guerra on his way to hospital with a probable fractured shoulder blade.

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With the Buff Scott team out of the fight for the overall standings, leaders Ferreira-Becking were dominating the stage in the uphill climb to Coll de Povet until an unfortunate flat tire forced them to stop and pull away. This gave wings to the Norwegian team and to those of Primaflor Mondraker X-Sauce who, with much of the stage ahead of them, saw a golden opportunity to try and take the overall victory.

From that point and after Tiago Ferreira managed to repair his wheel, the stage became a real chase to the same finish line in the Altea sports centre. Norwegians Emil Hasund and Anders Johannessen took the victory of the day by winning the sprint with a time of 02:49:51. Australian Dan McConnell's Primaflor Mondraker X-Sauce and Russia's Anton Sintsov took second place at 2 seconds away.

The podium of the stage was completed by Tiago Ferreira and Hans Becking, who were less than 2 minutes behind the leaders and who, thanks to the time gained in the previous stages, were able to keep the lead and win the race. 

Thus, the men's podium of this Costa Blanca Bike Race 2020 is formed by Emil Hasund and Anders Johannessen from the Norwegian team in third place, Dan McConnell and Anton Sintsov from Primaflor Mondraker X-Sauce in second, and Tiago Ferreira and Hans Becking from DMT Racing Team in first.

In the elite women's category, the podium of previous days has been repeated, but to finish, the leaders of the race Bec McConnells and Githa Michiels wanted to squeeze to finish with more than 8 minutes of advantage over the second classified, Rocio Garcia del Alba of BH Templo Cafes and the champion of Bosnia, Lejla Tanovic. The stage podium was completed by Estonian Greete Steinburg and Janika Loiv, almost 20 minutes behind the former.

The women's podium in the sixth edition of the Costa Blanca Bike Race 2020 has been taken by Bec McConnells and Githa Michiels of Primaflor Mondraker X-Sauce as winners for the second year in a row. Rocío García del Alba from BH Templo Cafés and Lejla Tanovic were second and Greete Steinburg and Janika Loiv third.

This closes a new edition of this event in which a record of participation has been broken and it has been consolidated as a reference at an international level.