February 23/14 16:30 pm - Vuelta Independencia Nacional: Stage 4 report and results

Posted by Editoress on 02/23/14
 

Stage four of the Vuetla Independencia Nacional was cancelled yesterday (February 23rd) after the riders decided that the conditions were not suitable for racing and stopped after six laps of the city circuit stage. Race officials agreed.

"Dangerous! The word of the day," said Rob Britton post race, "Today's race was neutralized after only six laps after the heads of state within the race decided it was just too dangerous."

"It started to rain almost immediately after the gun went off and to say the course was like a ice rink would be conservative, guys were getting taken down by the white lines on a straight road!"

Director, Michal Creed, who just landed in the Dominican Republic for the final four days of racing, reiterated the dangers on the roads in Santiago saying: "There was a lot of oil, diesel and potholes on the road."

"With four more days of racing it wasn't worth it," explained Rob.

Instead of finishing the stage the peloton paid homage to Euris Vidal, who was tragically killed in Santiago late last year. Euris had signed with the InCycle-Predator Cycling team for 2014, so as a sign of respect the peloton rode a neutral lap through the city; his family were present for the stage.

"After we stopped we did one more lap of honour for Euris as his team took to the front and lead us across the line," explained Rob.

With that, there were no changes in the top order for the general classification and Eric Marcotte holds onto the yellow jersey going into tomorrow's queen stage. Jure Kocjan rode himself into the lead of the points jersey competition after his stage three win.

Tomorrow's queen stage is a short stage at just 112 kilometres but features five KOM climbs (two Cat three climbs and three Cat two climbs), including the final big one taking the peloton to the finish. Michael believes that Team SmartStop can hit the bottom of the KOM with good positioning and finish the stage off.

"The final KOM is 20 kilometres from the finish, hopefully our guys can ride together and save the day!" Michael said.

Rob believes all the teams will come out fighting tomorrow for stage five especially after a shortened stage today. "Four down, five to go. After a bit of a break today you can bet your bottom dollar it will be all guns blazing on tomorrow's queen mountain stage."

With seven riders within a minute of each other fighting for the overall position of the tour and the main field just over six minutes behind Eric Marcotte's lead, Team SmartStop will be looking to finish in top positioning over the mountain stage. This is the stage that can shake up the overall classification.

Michael is optimistic but at the same time realistic about the team's chances of holding onto the lead and maintaining the yellow jersey. "I think it will be a challenge for us to win the overall, but it is a race and that is what we will try to do."

"After the mountain day we'll see where we are at, but I am hopeful for another couple of stage wins in the sprint finishes."

The GC remains unchanged with Rob Britton (Team SmartStop) sitting second overall behind teammate  Eric Marcott.

Stage 1 
Stage 2 
Stage 3