Iuri Leitão overjoyed with spectacular win at Trofeo Palma: "I thought it was a good opportunity to try and sometimes you have to take risks"

Iuri Leitão took a tremendous victory at Trofeo Palma 2025, the last race of the Challenge Mallorca series, this year reduced to four days because the Trofeo Andratx was cancelled due to dangerous conditions. The Portuguese rider from Caja Rural - Seguros RGA took off on a flyer inside the final kilometre, surprising the sprinters to win for the first time in 2025.

At the end of the race, you could see the happiness on his face, as he knew the finish very well: "We studied the circuit very well and we knew that the last corner was the key to victory," he explained in his post-race interview. "The finish was very fast, but sometimes you have to take risks. I gave everything I had on the approach to the traffic circle and then I was in second position, the last corner was very fast, so I took it faster than the others, and I ended up getting carried away."

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Leitão also said that this was an unexpected outcome, but you have to know how to take advantage of the opportunities that arise in the race. "It wasn't in our plans to attack so early, with so many big teams doing the leadout. We wanted to be at the front, the guys helped me stay at the front in the last two laps and, in the end, the plan was to be in a good position at the traffic circle and try to find space to sprint," he notes. "Because on the second day I didn't manage to sprint, but I found myself in a good position and I thought it was a good opportunity to try it and, sometimes, you have to take a risk and, this time, it went well."

As you might expect, this victory now gives a lot of confidence to Leitão, who had won on one occasion last year. "It's very good to start a season with a victory," he concludes. "If you look at the riders who won the other 3 races, you can see that it's a very important race, so for me it's a great start!"

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