There was a definite air of homecoming for Juan Jose Lobato when the Movistar rider clinched a long-sought-after stage win in Lucena in the Vuelta a Andalucia.
Born in the nearby Andalucian region of Cadiz, the Spanish sprinter had finally netted a stage in his home race, four years after his nearest miss, a second place on stage 3 of the 2011 race. Small wonder that the large crowd in front of the winner’s podium, amongst them his girlfriend Ana, cheered the local hero loudly as he held his arms aloft for the stage win.
Lobato’s career path to date has not been straightforward, and Spain’s ongoing sponsorship crisis has a lot to do with it. Having ridden for the now-defunct Andalucia-Caja Granada Pro Continental squad at both amateur and professional levels, when his local team folded in 2012, Lobato signed for Euskaltel-Euskadi. At the end of 2013, the Basque ProTour squad also disintegrated as the sponsors pulled out, and a once again teamless Lobato was snapped up, this time by Movistar for 2014.
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After four years of taking minor victories and placings in races like the GP Getxo (twice) or stages of the Vuelta a Castilla y Leon, Lobato punched well above his expected weight in his new team, his standout result being fourth in Milan-San Remo, by far his best Monuments result to date. Other notable results for the 25-year-old included stages in the Vuelta a Burgos and Tour of Wallonie.
This season, Lobato has hit the ground running, first netting a stage on the other side of the world in the Tour Down Under and now another win in his home race - after Javi Moreno’s time trial win, it's Movistar’s second win in as many days. He won in spectacular style, too, accelerating 300 metres from the line and weaving through the pack at high speed to go well clear of John Degenkolb (Giant-Alpecin), who had already said he was impressed by the Spaniard in Australia.
It's no coincidence, either, that both his 2015 victories have been on long, draggy uphills, although Lobato told reporters in Andalucia, "this time round it wasn't such a difficult climb as Australia. It was pretty much the same strategy, though." In Andalucia, too, a third category climb just before the sprint had reduced the front group by around a third.
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