"His confidence in his own abilities is constantly increasing" - Bahrain DS on the growth of Santiago Buitrago as GC leader
Cycling
Last week's Volta a Comunitat Valenciana offered a highly enjoyable battle for top placings with Santiago Buitrago coming out on top with superb performances. After mediocre 2024 season, it's good news for Bahrain - Victorious who could once again stand to their name thanks to the Colombian climber.
Did sports director Roman Kreuziger expect Buitrago to arrive at such phenomenal shape to Valenciana? "Yes, because we gave him some freedom in December: he didn't come to the altitude with us, he stayed in Colombia in his environment. In January he was with the team for only a week before going straight up to Teide," he tells Bici.pro.
"I followed his training and I saw that he was ready: he was doing important numbers for the first part of the season," The individual preparation back in South America clearly paid off as the 25-year-old went on to win two hard stages along with the general classifcation.
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Kreuziger is pleased to see the young rider grow also a leader: "Physically he continues to improve, but his real advantage is that since he was not a leader when he was young, he is growing slowly, learning year after year. His confidence in his own abilities is constantly increasing and he is also maturing as a person."
"Before he was more shy, now instead, when he feels good, he does not hesitate to call his teammates on the radio, to keep them closer during the race. Even in the pre-race meetings he asks for more things. This is fundamental, because a leader must motivate the whole group around him."
What's on Buitrago's plate for 2025? Some assumed he has grown to be in the contention for a nice result at the Giro d'Italia but Bahrain - Victorious will instead allow Buitrago to take on the Tour de France once again, hoping to improve his 10th place from last year.
"He already had a first taste of the Tour last year, racing Paris-Nice and then the Dauphiné before starting the Grande Boucle. He finished the Tour in the top 10, an excellent result for his first experience. This year we will repeat a similar program just to see how far he has arrived, but without putting pressure on him."
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- They went into the race as co-leaders!frieders323-03-2025
- He can win that sprint if he plays it right but leaving tha gap was ridiculous ! A spring after 6+ hours isn't a guarantee for MVDPfrieders323-03-2025
- The climbs are steeper on Flanders giving Pogi the advanatge as we saw before when he won!frieders323-03-2025
- VDP is best in a short sprint, so Pog was purposely leaving a gap in hopes that VDP wouldn't have enough to sprint for 310 meters at the end of 300 KM. Kwiatkowski did the same thing to Sagan at that same point and won because of it.acem8223-03-2025
- Ganna started winning the occasional end of season sprint a few years ago. It's been fun watching him change from a TT specialist into something more.RidesHills23-03-2025
- hey look, an insinuating question from 2 years ago! I mean, sure, announcers mentioned tail wind, but whatever. That wasn't going to matter today, not with the 2 best classics riders of the past many generations (you have to go back to the 70s to see two people dominate like this, and even Merckx and de Vlaeminck never managed to win 2 each in the same year, the way Pogacar and Van der Poel have done in the past 2 years).RidesHills23-03-2025
- I like my statistics: Pogacar and van der Poel have won 13 of the last 18 Monuments and are tied at 7 each (MvdP won his first long enough ago that it doesn't show the more recent utter domination.) Oh, and the last 2 road world championships. Oh, and one of them also won the last Tour and Giro, while the other won the CX and Gravel world championships. I mean, anyone reading this site knows all this, but it's worth being amazed by it all every now and then.RidesHills23-03-2025
- Congratulations to all three on the podium. The final seconds reminded me of E3 a few years back, when tiny little Pogacar had no chance against van Aert and van der Poel, but that was just the last few seconds of an incredible race. Everything from the launch on the Cipressa to crossing the line was amazing.RidesHills23-03-2025
- All 3 of them went to doping control
Front24223-03-2025 - What a race! To see these three going at it, Ganna so stellar between the two best Monuments riders of the past several years (now tied at 7 each - what a rivalry!), Pogacar trying everything, van der Poel patient yet also throwing in that startling attack - who expected an attack on the Cipressa to be this good?! Just re-watched it, and even knowing the outcome it was great to watch. Fabulous!RidesHills23-03-2025