Hermida, who was using his Nation Champion jersey for the first time this year, did yesterday a race to remember. The rider from Multivan-Merida had to get over a bad start to come again to the first positions: “Both Absalon and I have gone through a bad start. There has been a crash and it has not helped us at all. We have got in the woods quite back in the peloton; we had many people in front of us”.

After those first moments, the race has started to take shape: “My teammate in Multivan-Merida Näf had opened a gap in the first kilometers, but Absalon has caught him and escaped alone. When I have been able to catch Näf, Absalon was already 30 seconds away”.

The rest of the race was a time trial between both riders: ”We have spent from the seocnd to the sixth lap riding full gas, always with 30 seconds of margin. He wanted to increase it and I was doing my best to close it; it has been great. In the last lap, there has been a moment where I could close the gap to 15-20 seconds and I thought I could catch him; but it couldn’t be”. Hermida finished 32 seconds behind Absalon, with the next rider almost 3 minutes back from the winner.

Hermida was happy after this second spot, feeling very motivated towards the next Sunday’s race, to be held at Bromont (Canadá).

With this result, Jose goes from 6th to 3rd position in the overall classification of the World Cup.