Vuelta a Cuba Concludes Sunday

By Circles Robinson

HAVANA TIMES, Feb. 20 — Joel Mariño of Matanzas, Cuba took the next to last leg of the Vuelta a Cuba cycling competition on Saturday, while Arnold Alcolea (Team Cuba) has a solid lead  in the overall ranking with one day to go in the 13-stage event.

Mariño clocked a time of 3:10 hours for the 143-kilometer stretch from Guanajay to Pinar del Rio, ahead of Guillaume Boivin of the Spidertech Canada team and Joaquin Sobrino, of Peugeot-BDC International who finished third.

The last leg of the Vuelta takes place Sunday between San Cristóbal, Pinar del Rio and the Havana downtown Capitolio building finish line.

After today’s results, Arnold Alcolea (Cuba) leads the General Individual Qualification with an accumulated  time of 40:53.02 hours, 37 seconds ahead of Jose Alarcon (Merida, Venezuela) the events top mountain racer.  Alcolea’s teammeate Yennier Lopez is a minute and 22 seconds back.

Team Cuba leads the squads with a 122:44.32 hours; Team Colombia is second at 4:54 minutes back, and Merida third at 9:18 minutes out.