Kaden Hopkins did not have the start he was looking for as the Cup of Spain Elite-Sub 23 2022 edition got underway. This 68th edition of the GP Ciclista Primavera was the third time that the Ontur race is part of the calendar of the Cup of Spain Elite-Sub 23.
During Stage One, Hopkins was one of 72 riders who recorded a Did Not Finish after a total of 175 cyclists started the race, which saw Francisco Muñoz Llana clock a winning time of 4:04:56, Andoni Lopez de Abetxuko was second with the same time, and Andrea Pietrobon finished third with a time of 4:04:57.
Hopkins and his teammates were feeling really good, as training and racing had been going really well, and was looking for a good finish today.
It was raining in the race, Hopkins was in a really good position near the front where you normally stay out of trouble but not today, as a massive crash eliminated several riders.
Hopkins said, “It just ended up being a day of bad luck. I felt great. My training has going well and I was really looking for a good result today. There was a point in the race where we turned off a 2 lane highway into a narrow road. Lots of teams were fighting for position and my teammates and I were well placed near the front. Unfortunately, there was a touch of wheels and 5 riders in the front went down. I knew I wasn’t going to be able to avoid it. We were going about 60kmph and there was no room to go anywhere so I just tried to drop as much speed as possible. I was sent over my handlebars and about half the peloton went down behind me also. After making sure I didn’t have any serious injuries I got back on and a group of about 20 of us started chasing to get back in. After about 45km I still wasn’t in the main group and the adrenaline of the crash had worn off. I called it a day after that. I had to get my hand-stitched closed after the race but luckily I don’t have any broken bones. I’ll take a few days now to heal up a bit and hope to be good to race again this weekend.”
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