Luisle’ redeems himself in the marathon stage
4 de May de 2025The Škoda Titan Desert Morocco 2025 was not being a dream race for Luis León Sánchez. The main contender and current winner of the race had mechanical problems yesterday that added to the time he had already lost with the GC leader.
Today, however, in the first sector of the marathon stage, ‘Luisle’ showed his class. Yes, it was a flat stage, but also technical, rocky and with navigation sections. More designed, perhaps, for the big mountainbike experts.
And yet, it was the riders of the professional road peloton, who gave a real exhibition.
Early on, Andrey Amador and Luis León, former teammates of the Caisse d’Épargne team in 2009 and 2010, opened an almost unreachable gap with the Flyz team members: Fran Herrero and Noel Martín. Uphill, downhill, on the flat, on good or bad tracks, the legs of the Spaniard and the Costa Rican prevailed on any terrain.
The stage victory in this first sector of the marathon stage, in which the peloton has no mechanical or physical assistance and has to rely on themselves to spend the night, has been for ‘Luisle’. Amador did not sprint, but he celebrated at the finish line the spoils achieved in the GC: he is the leader, more than 11 minutes ahead of Herrero.
Yesterday, Annabel Fisher made a big breakthrough with her first stage win and reduced the gap to the leader, ‘Pili’ Fernandez, to less than three minutes.
However, today’s stage was very different. The Brit said yesterday after her win that flat and windy stages are “shit” for her. And there was plenty of that today.
On a day of difficult terrain: with rocks, navigation and a route in which you have to push your legs to the limit, the Madrid-born rider’s experience in mountain biking was evident.
They were together during the first half of the stage, but from there to the end, the KH7 rider pressed and relied on her multiple teammates. The gap widened and widened until it exceeded eight minutes. More than 10 minutes in the GC.
