Jordi Viladoms learned well from yesterday’s mistakes and took command of the third stage, disputed between the towns of San Teodoro and Gavoi, with 50 km of timed racing. Again, the stage ran through a hard and sandy track, very slippery, combined with much slower, trials-style areas. Viladoms skilfully kept up a fast pace while closely observing the indications in the roadbook, until he reached the finish line one second faster than general classification leader Cyril Després.
The second special of the day, with Viladoms showing a fine perfromance, was stopped due to a fall suffered by rider Paolo Ceci, yesterday’s winner, who had an accident and fell in an area where the helicopter had difficulties reaching. The special had to be stopped and a 4X4 was sent to evacuate him. This special ran through a thick forest which is part of a protected natural park, and where during the last few years the race had been forbidden to pass through.
Viladoms finished the day satisfied, as tomorrow he will open up the track and it is a fine opportunity to learn, as he will not see any of the tracks left by preceding riders and he shall have to pay close attention to navigation. It is theoretically easier for those behind to catch up with the first rider, but his strategy tomorrow will be to slow down his pace slightly in order to get the navigation right first time.
Gerard Farrés, out of the race yesterday after he had a head-on crash with Casteu, who was riding in the opposite direction when he got lost halfway through the special, was back in Barcelona yesterday and this morning he visited the USP Institut Universitari Dexeus hospital, where they carried out a number of tests and X-rays on him in order to evaluate the exact extent of the injury. After the exploration and the results obtained, Dr Xavier mir declared that the Repsol KTM Team rider, Gerard Farrés “has a lacerated contused wound to his left foot, with a fracture to the third metatarsal bone. A further check-up will be carried out early next week to monitor the state of the wound and to avoid its infection. He must observe a recovery period of three to four weeks before returning to sports activities.”
Jordi Viladoms
“Today went quite better and in the end I won. I went out there taking it easy, but it looks like when you do things well, calmly, the results come effortlessly. It was quite a fast special, though on quite a slippery track, and after yesterdays experience, I concentrated on following the roadbook as best as I could. In the end I didn’t make any mistakes and was able to keep up a good pace throughout the whole special. If you manage just that -to keep up a constant pace and no mistakes- , things like this can happen, and I was first. I had a good day and I’m very happy; during the second special I think I was doing even better. Apart from the result, which at the end of the day is just a few decimal points faster than Cyril’s, the vibes on the bike are very good. And it’s the third day, I’m getting better with the roadbook, and feel much more comfortable on the smaller bike. We’d been riding on the large bike in Bulgaria, and I’ve gradually got used to this one and am enjoying it a lot.”
Gerard Farrés
“This morning I went to the Dexeus hospital and they had a good look at it. They did X-rays and saw there was a broken metatarsal bone -though it’s nothing serious-, and that my foot is very swollen. So they’ve plastered it to keep it still for a few days until the swelling is gone. Then they’ll do an elecromagnetic resonance to see in exactly what state the ligaments in my ankle are in, as they can’t see it very well with the swelling, and to see how the tendons in the affected toe are, where I got cut, to make sure they’re alright. To be honest I’m quite reassured, because I was afraid it might be more serious. It’s an injury and it’s never nice when these things happen, but it’s not that complicated. I’ll miss a few races in Spain, but the important thing is that I’ll be recovered in a couple of months.”
