BARREDA SETS THE PACE IN BIKES

The 37th edition of the Baja Espana Aragon – Trofeo Avatel started with Joan Barreda’s (Honda) dominance in the bike category in the first day. The rider from Castellon set the pace in both special stages of the day, the first being a 5 km prologue in Teruel, in which Barreda beat Tosha Schareina by only 4 seconds.

In the first long special of the Baja Espana Aragon, which stretched 180 km long between the towns of Banon and Cuevas Labradas, Barreda repeated his success in the prologue and was the fastest again at all intermediate timing points and, of course, also at the finish line. The Honda rider needed 2h20’43” to complete the day with the best time, 1’16” ahead of Lorenzo Santolino, who closed this first day of competition in second place, while third in this timed section was Tosha Schareina.

Joan Barreda

“It was a very hard special stage and we had to keep our concentration and avoid the big rocks. The truth is that we have kept a good pace and it was not easy because there were some dubious areas due to the tracks left by the cars.
Tomorrow will be even harder. The track is getting more and more broken and it’s going to be very hard. I think this is one of the hardest Bajas I’ve ever raced, but we’re going for it.”

In the quad category, Frenchman Alexandre Giroud closed the day with a victory that was decided in the last 50 kilometres of the stage. The leader up to that moment, the Spaniard Jorge Lafarja, suffered problems and eventually lost 36 minutes to Giroud at the finish line. Toni Vingut, 1’36” behind, finished second in the category.

The biggest victim of the special stage was Mario Gajon, considered a serious contender for the victory. The KTM rider set the best time in the Super Special but wasn’t able to finish the first long special of the Baja Espana Aragon – Trofeo Avatel.

In the Open category for bikes, Javier Vega is in the lead after the first day with a 1’41” gap over Albert Martin. In the female classification, Sara Garcia finished the day in the first position with an 8’21” advantage over Mirjam Pol.

Tomorrow will be the second and last day of the race with two special stages. The bikes and quads will start the day with the longest section of this edition (209 km long) and then complete this 37th Baja Espana Aragon-Trofeo Avatel with the 162-kilometer special stage between Monreal del Campo and Santa Eulalia.