In the sprint race from saturday, Jose passed the first two rounds easily, although he qualified third in the following round and was out of the big final: “I suffered a bit. It was 1:30 minutes lap and it meant you had to go full gas right from the start. I got the best qualifying time and I was able to pass the first two rounds without problems, but I couldn’t keep the pace in the third one and I had to resign myself to fight for the small final; I was 2nd there, what meant that I was 6th in the overall”.

On sunday, Hermida was the man ruling the race, dominating it from the beginning and getting the victory: “right from the start shot I have been feeling great. In the half of the first lap I was already alone in front with a 15-20 sec. gap over my team mate Näf, that was coming alone in second position. In the fourth lap, I have slowed down a bit and we have got together. We have ridden together for the rest of the race, but Ralph has had a small problem in the last descent and that has given me a small distance to get to the finish line alone. It has been a good weekend for me and Merida, because we have got 1-2 positions in this race that is sponsored by one of our main sponsors”.

The race has been a good trainning for the European Championships that will be raced in a couple of weeks. Just as Jose pointed out, “the feeling has been good, although my legs were burning today after the fight from yesterday. A double-race weekend like this is perfect to improve my explosivity”.

Next week, Jose will not race and will stay at home, doing the last intensity trainnings before the continental championship.