Niklas Behrens, a 20-year-old, two-meter German colossus, won the U23 World Cup in which the best Spaniards were Iván Romeo (ninth), another cyclist from 2003 who is over six feet tall, and Igor Arrieta (10th), 21st. years too and a little shorter, ma non troppo, 1.83m.
The Zurich circuit wants big watt generators, as fast as it is tough, with its short, violent and long, exhausting climbs. Smaller climbers, like Pablo Torres (27th), 18 years old, suffered the comparison, not only in size but also in experience in a category to which the great trend of promoting cyclists who have just turned 18, juniors, to professionals stars like Evenepoel or Pogacar, has turned into a salad so varied that it is mixed, often with little culinary grace, veterans with already hard skin and professional experience in WorldTour teams with cyclists who are still beardless and with acne, and sweet. While Behrens has raced this year in Lidl’s second team, seven of the top ten at the finish line next to the imposing Zurich Opera House, and only the incessant rain obscures it, run in professional teams: three from the UAE (the phenomenon Mexican Isaac del Toro, sixth; Swiss Jan Christen, the man who blew up the race, fourth, and Arrieta). The second, the Slovakian Martin Svrček, an emulator of Peter Sagan without so much grace, belongs to Remco Evenepoel’s Soudal, and the Belgian Alec Segaert (bronze) to the Lotto, a team in which his compatriot almost a child (18 years old) will join next year. Jarno Widar, winner this year of the Giro Next Gen with Torres, from the UAE development team, second. The Englishman Joseph Blackmore (fifth), winner of the Tour del Porvenir, also ahead of the Vicálvaro cyclist, is a professional in Israel, while Romeo, already the under-23 world champion in time trial, has been racing for two years in Movistar of the WorldTour.
Considering that in a certain way this mixture distorts the category previously called amateur, the International Cycling Union (UCI) has decided that starting from the next World Cup, Kigali, in Rwanda, those runners registered in WorldTour teams or in the second division, the ProCon.
The World Cup, marked by the terrible death of the young Muriel Furrer, 18, after a fall in the junior event, continues on Saturday with the women’s race, in which, also for the last time, the under-23s and the older ones. Among the first (52 of the 194) will be the phenomenal Biscayan Eneritz Vadillo, 19 years old, third classified in the Tour del Porvenir. For the absolute classification, the favorite is the Belgian Lotte Kopecky, who, as the winner of the last World Cup, starts with the number one number. The Spanish Mavi García, sixth in the Olympic Games, has prepared thoroughly in Sierra Nevada and is only crossing her fingers that the rain and cold, which she does not like at all, do not prevent her from being among the top 10 again.
