Gaze's show to win the Massi Super Cup in La Nucia

Gaze took the victory in the Massi Super Cup in La Nucia in a demonstration of strength. The New Zealander controlled the race with absolute dominance after an attack that no one could replicate. Valero crossed in second position after completing a great comeback, while Fini occupied the last step of the podium.

Gaze finds no rival in La Nucia and wins the first round of the Massi Super Cup 2023

After a clean start, the riders passed through the finish line to begin the five full laps of the La Nucia circuit with Litscher in the lead followed by his teammate Fini and Jofre Cullell.

The Swiss took control of the race in the minutes that followed, again emulating the good work that led him to win last year in Alicante.

The first three positions were maintained at the exit of the bikepark. The leading group consisted of eleven riders. The Spanish star, Valero, was a few meters behind in twelfth place.

This was the end of the lap. Haegstad took first place after the first climb, although the front group remained unchanged. A tense calm was broken when Gaze changed the pace and attacked during one of the technical sections.

The first images after the New Zealander's move confirmed that he was in first position and had managed to open a large gap of about 15 seconds.

The bleeding continued to increase in the final stretch of the lap. In fact, the Alpecin-Deceunink rider started the third lap with almost half a minute margin. Behind, Valero was closing in on the chasing group, 40 seconds behind the leader.

Gaze maintained the 30-second cushion for the first part of the lap. Far from giving up, he continued to impose a superb pace to slightly increase his lead. Valero took over the role of leading the third group after the finish.

Valero unleashed his potential and managed to catch the chasing group. At about the same time, Cink was going solo for Gaze.

The Czech's move gained 5 seconds on the leader, although the gap was still around 25 seconds, which seemed increasingly difficult to close. A few corners ahead, Gaze started the last lap.

Behind, the fight for the last podium place was hotting up with a quartet of Philipp-Cullell-Valero-Fini, who were another 25 seconds behind Cink.

Hostilities in this group were not long in coming. Valero attacked on the first climb to demand maximum effort from his rivals, who were trying to stay in his wake. While Cullell and Fini seemed to withstand the onslaught from Granada, Philipp gave a little.

Valero continued to tighten the screws and reduced the gap to Cink to 12 seconds before entering the second half of the lap.

An insatiable Gaze increased the gap a little more, while Valero proved once again that he is a comebacker when he overtook Cink to take second place.

In the end there were no surprises and Gaze crossed the finish line in first position to raise his arms in the first race of the Massi 2023 Super Cup. Behind, Valero was able to close the gap and crossed in second place. The former quartet was now separated and it was Fini who took third place and completed the podium.

Shimano Super Cup Massi de La Nucía – Elite Men

1. Samuel Gaze (Alpecin-Deceuninck) 1h22'58"
2. David Valero (BH Coloma Team) +25"
3. Sebastian Fini (Lapierre Mavic Unity) +33"
4. Antoine Philipp (Giant Factory Off-Road Team) +45"
5. Jofre Cullell (BH Coloma Team) +52"
6. Emil Hasund Eid (Team Hunton Hard Rocx) +1'15"
7. Pablo Rodríguez (BH Coloma Team) +1'19"
8. Ondrej Cink (Primaflor Mondraker Genuins) +1'22"
9. Knut Rohme (Norwegian National Team) +1'43"
10. Maxime Loret (Massi) +1'49"

Degn se lleva la victoria en la categoría femenina

The Lapierre Mavic Unity Degn rider took the victory after beating Indergand in a nice duel. Jackson took the lead at the start of the race and, although she held it for some time, she finally gave it up when Indergand pushed hard.

Degn caught up with the Swiss and together they escaped from the rest. From that point on, the two riders were looking to fight it out with attacks in different areas. Even so, the duel lasted until the last lap. It was then that Degn was able to pull away from her rival and open up a gap. The Danish rider managed to hold on until the end and crossed the finish line in first position to win the race in La Nucia.

Shimano Super Cup Massi de La Nucía – Elite Women

1. Malègne Degn (Lapierre Mavic Unity) 1h18'55"
2. Linda Indergand (Liv Factory Racing) +24"
3. Jennifer Jackson (Liv Factory Racing) +2'45"
4. Linn Gustafzzon (Team 31) +3'54"
5. Natalia Fischer (BH Coloma Team) +4'09"
6. Raquel Silva Queiros (MMR Factory Racing Team) +5'33"
7. Nuria Bosch (BH Coloma Team) +7'14"
8. Alina Sarkulova (Kazakhstan National Team) +8'12"
9. Elena Lloret (Kenza LAP CC) +8'53"
10. Tatyana Geneleva (Kazakhstan National Team) +21'40"