Kortekaas and Maté win the Škoda We Love Cycling

Today’s was the biggest mountain stage of the race. The Škoda We Love Cycling gets its name from the climb up the Škoda Challenge, the toughest ascent of the year.

More than 4.5 kilometers and about 500 meters of cumulative elevation gain are timed, with 60 seconds of bonus time awarded to the fastest male and female cyclists to complete the climb.

Luis Ángel Maté, known as “El Lince,” has once again demonstrated his strength in the mountains. For the second consecutive year, he has won the stage with the greatest elevation gain —and this time, he did so in commanding fashion.

The rider from Málaga is the stage winner, the winner of the Škoda Challenge, and the overall leader with a lead of more than 8 minutes over second-place Bruno Rosa and third-place Noel Martín.

It was a strategy that Maté himself had planned days earlier. He had already been in the Boumalne Dades area for several days, studying the terrain and scouting the trails. And it certainly paid off.

The “Lince,” however, will have to prove that his strength in the mountains can also translate to the flat terrain. That’s the usual territory of Luis León Sánchez, who had a lot of mechanical issues today and could only finish fourth.

In the women’s GC, Tessa Kortekaas looked set to dominate once again, just as she always has whenever she’s competed in the Škoda Titan Desert Morocco. And she left no doubt about it.

The Dutch rider has opened up a lead of more than 20 minutes over the defending champion, ‘Pili’ Fernández. She did so by setting a blistering pace from the very first minute—the kind of pace she usually maintains on the flat and which, in this edition, she is also demonstrating in the mountains.

Massi ISB Sport INVERSE rider finished first in the women’s GC and 14th in the overall classification. She was just two minutes behind, for example, a former WorldTour peloton star like Jonathan Castroviejo. It was one of those performances Kortekaas is known for in the Titan World Series.