It seems like an eternity, but only a year has passed, when cycling was heading towards a season of circumstances due to the scourge of the pandemic. Then, those last days of July 2020, everyone was looking to the Vuelta a Burgos, the race that marked, in a way, the starting pistol for a calendar compressed to the point of exhaustion.
It was the Tour of Burgos of the premiere of Gobik as technical partner for the jerseys of leader. A test of fire in those circumstances, the fear of a positive in the caravan was enormous, and another step for the brand, which with the Vuelta a Burgos continued its growth in professional cycling.
The Vuelta a Burgos 2020 was historicfor the unique timing of the event, and for the and for crowning a winner like Remco Evenepoel.who, in those days between July and August, was impressive for his solvency on any terrain. The Belgian was to take home the first jersey purple that Gobik design for the tour of Burgos.
In one year, things have changed a lot for the Murcian brand. Its growth has gone hand in hand with UAE Team Emirates, the home of Tadej Pogačar. In this time, Gobik has dressed the Slovenian prodigy on the road to the highest goal to which one can aspire, the Tour de France, but has also had occasion to celebrate world and even Olympic medals, with special significance to the bronze of David Valero in the MTB race in Tokyo.
Now the Vuelta a Burgos
In an almost normal cycling season like the present one, the Vuelta a Burgos regains its role as a test event for the Vuelta a España. It so happens that both will start from the same stage, at the foot of the Burgos cathedral, a jewel of the world Gothic style, which is celebrating its anniversary, 800 years since the first stone was laid.
The race continues with its five days of competition, with stages that have become part of the tradition and the collective ideology of cycling. The first stage is the Alto del Castillo, for example, from the top of which the entire city and the towers of its cathedral can be seen. It is not the hardest finish, but it is perfect to make a first selection.
The race will continue to Briviesca, another of the classics on the route, and then to Espinosa de los Monteros, with a novelty, the entrance of Picón Blanco as a great filter less than 20 kilometers from the finish. It is eight kilometers at nine percent, with the novelty that it does not end at the top and cyclists are required to descend well towards the finish.
The fourth stage will be a route through vineyards in the Ribera del Duero and at the end, as tradition dictates, will climb to the top of the Lagunas de Neila, a violent and hard pass from which the successor to the Belgian prodigy, Evenepoel, will emerge.
Among others, the following will be expected winner of the Giro d'Italia, Egan Bernalaccompanied by Pavel Sivakov, along with Simon Yates, Hugh Carthy, Damiano Caruso, Romain Bardet and Mikel Landa.in his first race since crashing and dropping out of the Giro.
They will all fight to enter a luxurious palmarès along with Perico Delgado, Marino Lejarreta, Alex Zulle, Tony Rominger and Alejandro Valverde.among many others.
All of them will fight for the purple one designed by Gobik home.
Text: JoanSeguidor's notebook
Photos: Photo Gomez Sport
