CYCLING – TEAM Bahrain Victorious rider Santiago Buitrago placed in the top 10 yesterday on the fifth stage of the 61st Tirreno-Adriatico race in Italy.
Buitrago completed the 184-kilometre leg, which started in the village of Marotta-Mondolfo and ended in the commune of Mombaroccio, just over 40 seconds behind winner Michael Valgren of EF Education-EasyPost for 10th place.
Pello Bilbao was the team’s second-best finisher in 27th, while Antonio Tiberi came 40th. Attila Valter was classified 54th, Edoardo Zambanini 57th, Roman Erkamov 101st, and Fran Miholjevic 106th.
With the result, Buitrago climbed three spots to 10th on the general classification (GC), where he trails overall race leader Isaac Del Toro of UAE Team Emirates-XRG by about a minute-and-a-half. Tiberi, on the other hand, dropped three places to seventh in the best young rider rankings.
The race continues today with the sixth and penultimate round, to be held from San Severino Marche to Camerino and covering 188km in distance.
Meanwhile, Bahrain Victorious’s Lenny Martinez was 17th yesterday as the team’s top rider in the 179.3km sixth stage of the 84th Paris-Nice race in France. The Frenchman was part of a large trailing group that finished in a bunch sprint, six seconds behind victor Harold Tejada of XDS Astana Team.
Teammate Damiano Caruso was not far behind in 23rd, while Kamil Gradek came 84th and Nikias Arndt and Phil Bauhaus were 116th and 177th, respectively, to complete the Bahrain Victorious contingent.
Martinez stayed fifth on the race’s GC and third on the best young rider classification but dropped four places to 18th on the points ranking.
Today will be the event’s seventh and penultimate leg, to be held across 138.7km from the city of Nice to the neighbourhood of Auron.
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