Luis León Sánchez may be the one with a gold medal sitting on his mantelpiece but the inaugural European Games road race champion insists his triumph was a true team effort.
Having picked up bronze in the time trial three days previously, the Spaniard was fastest in the sprint from a late four-man escape on the 216-kilometre course that included stretches of cobbles and a climb to Baku’s old city.
Crucially, Spain had an extra card to play in the form of Jesús Herrada, who was also in the move and was able to set Sánchez up with a proper lead-out to get the better of Ukrainian Andriy Grivko and Czech Petr Vakov.
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“First of all I want to thank my teammates, especially Jesús, who was phenomenal,” Sánchez said, according to the Spanish cycling federation's website. “It was thanks to him I was able to win, so he deserves the medal really. We knew that we had to be in the moves from the start to not leave ourselves vulnerable to teams who had an extra rider like Belgium, Holland, Russia, or Italy.
“And in the decisive moment, we managed to make it us who had the numerical advantage. In terms of the final, I felt good because I came with the spark of the Giro but having recovered well from its exertions.
“Winning isn’t easy but in the end I managed to pull it off thanks to that work from the team. It is always beautiful to achieve a triumph like this, but above all with the great atmosphere we’ve had in this squad."
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