The Villarreal cyclist Sebastián Mora won the gold medal in London yesterday
Historical. The Villarreal cyclist Sebastián Mora, sponsored by Villarreal CF within the Endavant Esports initiative, won gold yesterday in the 2016 UCI Track World Championships. Mora crossed the finish line first in the men’s scratch race, disputed in the Lee Valley VeloPark velodrome in London, in which 25 riders went head to head to complete the 15km race in the best time possible.
Sebastián Mora was saving his strength in the first part of the race, mostly at the back of the pack. After just 45 laps, Moreno De Pauw (Belgium), Chris Lathan (Great Britain), the defending champion Lucas Liss (Germany) and Roman Glñadysh (Ukraine) all attacked, putting themselves a lap ahead with 34 to go. It was the perfect moment for Mora to launch an attack, followed by five other riders who also put themselves a lap ahead with 26 laps to go until the finish. Shortly after though they were caught by more riders, taking the leading pack to fifteen, all on the same lap.
Logically, the Villarreal cyclist wasn’t the favourite at this point but he provoked a second attack with just 10 laps to go. It seemed as though the final sprint would be fought between the six leading riders on the same lap, but Mora had other ideas and with 6 laps left distanced himself by half a lap to avoid any problems for the final sprint… Which he was then able to celebrate with a well deserved gold medal. Silver was taken by Mexico’s Ignacio Prado and bronze by Switzerland’s Claudio Imhof.
After the gold medal was placed around his neck, Mora said, “I had high hopes for the race and I’m really satisfied with my performance”. “At the start some of the riders got ahead, but it didn’t worry me, I was following a strategy that, fortunately, worked out well for me”, he confessed.
“We’ve trained really well for the last few months and this gives you confidence to face the race. The race did get away from me a bit at first, but there was a time in the race when I said to myself – this is the moment if I want to be world champion”, he asserted.
“On the last lap I saw that I had an advantage and I really enjoyed it. I didn’t believe I’d won until I crossed the finish line”, he concluded. Sebastián Mora’s next test will be to win gold again in the Madison race this Sunday together with his teammate Albert Torres.
