Record participation in the V Marcha Cicloturista Alberto Contador, held in Extremadura

The V Marcha Cicloturista Alberto Contador was held this Sunday in Plasencia with record participation, with more than 850 riders taking the start. The race, of 175 kilometres on a magnificent route through the Monfragüe National Park and the Jerte Valley, served Alberto Contador to carry out the penultimate of his long training rides before starting the Giro d’Italia next Saturday, 9 May.

The reception from the Extremadura fans was spectacular, among other reasons because of Contador’s emotional closeness to this land, where his whole family comes from. Thanks to the sponsorship of the Junta de Extremadura and the City Council of Plasencia, the Contador March, which each year visits a region of Spain, was held in one of the most attractive areas of the region, not only for tourism, but also for cycling.

Alberto Contador enjoyed this Sunday in a relaxed way the contact with the fans before travelling to Italy, where he will fight for the victory in his first big challenge of the year. “It’s the goal I’ve been preparing for since the beginning of the year, to fight for victory in the Giro. I’ve mortgaged the results of the beginning of the season for it and we’ll see how it goes. Today was an important day because it was my first intense training after coming down from Teide and I’m happy with the sensations”, said the Tinkoff-Saxo leader after the end of the race, in which he rode in the lead until the end.

The Marcha Alberto Contador proposed two routes of different difficulty in order to reach a greater number of fans. The middle-distance course was 148 kilometres long, while the long-distance course (175 kilometres) included the climb to Piornal. In both cases, the start and finish were held in the Parque de los Pinos de Plasencia.