SAN JUAN, Argentina – Bauke Mollema clinched the overall victory in the seven-day Vuelta a San Juan, Argentina. The victory gave great satisfaction to Trek-Segafredo funs and the right mood to face the racing season 2017.
The final stage, intense and fast, was shortened from 138 to 111 kilometers due to high temperatures. “It was much harder than I expected actually,” said Mollema. “It was only 111 kilometers with no corners, so the whole day was a really fast circuit”.
The race got even harder when Nibali unexpectedly tried to attack Mollema, who stated “I did not know what Nibali was doing actually; I was a bit surprised he was going in a break. They were only three guys, so we were never really worried. But at one moment they were going so fast that it was hard to take back anytime. All the time it was one and a half minutes, and I knew the sprinters’ teams were going to help in the finale”.
Mollema thanked his teammates affirming “They did a great job, we were only with five, but we managed to control the race. […] I have not won so many stage races, and it’s nice for me to start the year like this.
It is a good sign after the winter, and it says something about my level at this moment, and I am really happy about that.
It sets a good pace for the rest of the year, there’s a lot of other races coming up, of course, and this motivates me, even more, to keep working hard in the next weeks, next months.”
