Mireia Benito finishes in the top 15 in the penultimate stage of the Setmana Ciclista Valenciana

The third stage of the Setmana Ciclista Valenciana took the riders from Sagunt to València over a 118 km course. A bunch sprint was expected unless the climb of l'Oronet, less than 30 km from the finish, would steer the race in a different direction. AG Insurance - Soudal once again made its presence known with a strong and determined race. Mireia Benito secured a solid top-15 finish after a brave attempt to break away from the peloton with a late attack.

A determined race from the entire team

The team worked excellently together, responding to attacks and actively seeking opportunities in breakaways. Mireia Benito looked back positively on the stage: “It was a hard day, but I think that we are stepping up as a team each day. Every day we are improving, working together, staying together in the bunch, and the team did an amazing job covering all the early breaks. Everyone was super active and fully committed to sticking to the plan. On the climb, Lore made a great attack, and when we got caught, I tried to go myself and got away with two other riders, but we were caught again with, I think, only two kilometers to go. It was a nice try, and someday it will work out.”

"At the beginning, I could take it easy in the peloton and watched as the other girls worked incredibly hard to respond to the attacks. They did an amazing job, and Fauve helped me get into a good position at the bottom of the climb. The pace wasn’t too high at first, but halfway up, it picked up significantly, and a few attacks came. That’s when I decided to go myself. We were a group of four riders, but we got caught just before the top. Mireia then launched a fantastic counterattack and stayed in front until about one or two kilometers before the finish. Unfortunately, she was caught, but if you don’t try, you’ll never succeed," said Lore De Schepper.