Tour de Panama
Havana, July 25 (RHC) - Cuban Ricardo Delgado took eighth place in the third stage of the Tour de Panama dominated by local idol Franklin Archibol to keep the leader's jersey.
Archibol (Senafront) timed 2:31.36 hours after the final stage in which he was followed by Gabriel Rojas (Manzaté) and Oscar Sevilla (Medellín), who marked the same time.
Only 29 seconds behind this trio, Delgado, who rides with HYF-Colombia, crossed the finish line in a small group of 11 riders closed by his national teammate Randol Izquierdo.
With this performance, Randol (Cuba-Rali) climbed four steps and appears as the best placed of the island in the overall individual classification, now in 13th place, in addition to moving up from sixth to third in the under-23 category.
Two other Cuba-Rali riders, José Domínguez and Yariel de León, arrived in 19th and 21st places, in that order, to contribute along with Randol to his team's jump from eighth to fourth place among 21 collectives.
Further back came the distinguished master Vicente Sanabria (Cuba-Rali) and his young compatriot Amed Marcos (City Bikes Miami) in 32nd and 34th places, respectively.
The only youth of the Cubans, Yadiel Hernandez, took 50th place to maintain third place in his category. In the U-23 category, Randol is followed by Domínguez (fifth) and Marcos (seventh).
In the general classification, after Izquierdo, in the top 20 are Dominguez (down to 17th), Delgado (19th, his best position so far) and Amed (down to 20th).
De León climbed to 28th and Sanabria to 33rd to complete the outstanding performance of all so far, taking into account that 136 riders, most of them with international experience, are still in the peloton.
The fourth and penultimate stage, scheduled for Friday, will be the longest with 124 kilometers. One day later, the Tour concludes with a 95 km closed circuit.
Source: JIT
