Gaviria explains his sprint victory in the Tour of Colombia: "That was my path, we both wanted to find space that sometimes doesn't exist"

Fernando Gaviria won the opening stage of the Tour of Colombia after beating Italian Davide Persico and Mark Cavendish in the Duitama stage. The cyclist from La Ceja was the strongest rider in a complicated finish that Movistar Team executed to perfection.

After the race, he was very satisfied with the result: "When you win, you can always say you're doing well... and we're doing well. It was quite a difficult stage due to the altitude and the speed of the final part. On the approach, fortunately, we were strong. I think we did a good job as a team and we had to face strong rivals. Everyone wanted to win, but we did well and were stronger."

Regarding the sprint itself, in which he saw Persico complain about allegedly blocking him against the barriers, he said that at no point did he alter his trajectory:

"I was looking for the direction of the barriers from the moment I started the sprint and it's true that both Persico and I found ourselves there; I apologized to him, but that was my trajectory, we both wanted to find space that sometimes isn't there. I'm happy to start the year winning and I thank my teammates for their hard work today."