{"id":12063,"date":"2026-04-26T16:31:57","date_gmt":"2026-04-26T14:31:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/skodatitandesertmorocco.titanworldseries.com\/?p=12063"},"modified":"2026-04-26T16:34:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-26T14:34:14","slug":"kortekaas-and-mate-win-the-skoda-we-love-cycling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/skodatitandesertmorocco.titanworldseries.com\/en\/kortekaas-and-mate-win-the-skoda-we-love-cycling\/","title":{"rendered":"Kortekaas and Mat\u00e9 win the \u0160koda We Love Cycling"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Today\u2019s was the biggest mountain stage of the race. The \u0160koda We Love Cycling gets its name from the climb up the \u0160koda Challenge, the toughest ascent of the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Luis \u00c1ngel Mat\u00e9, known as \u201cEl Lince,\u201d has once again demonstrated his strength in the mountains. For the second consecutive year, he has won the stage with the greatest elevation gain \u2014and this time, he did so in commanding fashion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rider from M\u00e1laga is the stage winner, the winner of the \u0160koda Challenge, and the overall leader with a lead of more than 8 minutes over second-place Bruno Rosa and third-place Noel Mart\u00edn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was a strategy that Mat\u00e9 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The \u201cLince,\u201d however, will have to prove that his strength in the mountains can also translate to the flat terrain. That\u2019s the usual territory of Luis Le\u00f3n S\u00e1nchez, who had a lot of mechanical issues today and could only finish fourth.<\/p>\n\n\n

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<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the women\u2019s GC, Tessa Kortekaas looked set to dominate once again, just as she always has whenever she\u2019s competed in the \u0160koda Titan Desert Morocco. And she left no doubt about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Dutch rider has opened up a lead of more than 20 minutes over the defending champion, \u2018Pili\u2019 Fern\u00e1ndez. She did so by setting a blistering pace from the very first minute\u2014the kind of pace she usually maintains on the flat and which, in this edition, she is also demonstrating in the mountains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Massi ISB Sport INVERSE rider finished first in the women\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today\u2019s was the biggest mountain stage of the race. The \u0160koda We Love Cycling gets its name from the climb up the \u0160koda 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":12062,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-12063","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"entry"},"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/skodatitandesertmorocco.titanworldseries.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/skodatitandesertmorocco.titanworldseries.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/skodatitandesertmorocco.titanworldseries.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skodatitandesertmorocco.titanworldseries.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skodatitandesertmorocco.titanworldseries.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12063"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/skodatitandesertmorocco.titanworldseries.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12063\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12064,"href":"https:\/\/skodatitandesertmorocco.titanworldseries.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12063\/revisions\/12064"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skodatitandesertmorocco.titanworldseries.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/skodatitandesertmorocco.titanworldseries.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skodatitandesertmorocco.titanworldseries.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skodatitandesertmorocco.titanworldseries.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}