Cañada upsets the odds to win Subida a Gorla

Mutua Levante's Cristian Cañada climbed to a potentially career-changing win at the prestigious Subida a Gorla on Sunday.

The mountainous one-day race, part of the Basque sub-23 Torneo Lehendakari race series, has an eye-catching honour roll featuring a number of past and present stars of the cycling world. If Cañada, who turned 22 on Saturday, can follow the likes of Alberto Contador, Carlos Sastre and Joaquim Rodríguez on the path to greatness remains to be seen, but he did his chances of being noticed by the pro teams no harm with a resounding win at the top of the mythical climb of Gorla.

Cañada reached the line in two hours, 22 minutes and one second - seven seconds ahead of Arnau Solé of Coluer who relegated Seguros Bilbao's 20-year-old Basque Júlen Amexketa of Navarra to the third and last step on the podium.

Finishing fourth was Caja Rural's Ibai Salas, hotly tipped for the win pre-race, while Lizarte's Antonio Pedrero closed out the top five.

There was little in the way of success for Fundación Euskadi's outfit, Naturgas Energía, with Víctor Etxeberría being their top man on the day in 14th. Overall Torneo Lehendakari leader Loïc Chetout didn't find Gorla's steep gradients to his liking and finished 20th.

Alain Santamaría gave the team some presence in the race, though, as he was part of a small breakaway group for a while.

Results (full results here):

• 1, Cristian Cañada (Mutua Levante), 2:22:01
• 2, Arnau Solé (Coluer), 0:07
• 3, Júlen Amezketa (Seguros Bilbao), s.t.
• 4, Ibai Salas (Caja Rural), 0:25
• 5, Antonio Pedrero (Lizarte), 0:36
• 6, Jaime Roson (Caja Rural), 0:46
• 7, Francisco Medina (Caja Rural), 0:51
• 8, Miguel Ángel Benito (Caja Rural), s.t.
• 9, Federico Moreira (Reyno de Navarra), s.t.
• 10, Carles Ruiz (Mutua Levante), 1:00
• 14, Víctor Etxeberría (Naturgas Energía), 1:10
• 20, Loïc Chetout (Naturgas Energía), 1:23
• 39, Francisco Javier Martín (Naturgas Energía), 3:20
• 53, Karl Baudron (Naturgas Energía), 6:01
• 55, Imanol Estévez (Naturgas Energía), s.t.
• 65, Noel Gil (Naturgas Energía), 10:27

Photo: Pagina66