“The trails and singletracks are fantastic!”

Tiago Ferreira, twice winner of Andalucía Bike Race presented by Shimano comes back this year to contend for the final podium again

The portuguese is the current European MTB Marathon (XCM) Champion and World’s runner-up, title he won in 2016. Twice winner of Andalucía Bike Race presented by Shimano consecutively, in 2016 in team format and individual in 2017; “both victories are good and special both for me and my team. Winning the last edition as a team and the first one in individual format is very good, but winning individual is more special”, explains the current champion.

Ferreira has competed four times in Andalucía Bike Race presented by Shimano and returns with number one; “I’ll do my best and hope to contend for the final podium. Andalucía Bike Race presented by Shimano is one of the most spectacular races there are in Europe and possibly one of the world’s best”, outstands the Portuguese. “The individual format brought more show, the weather is usually very good for this time of the year, and the trails and singletracks are fantastic… A very well thought and organised race!”, praises the Continental champion.

Looking into the future

The 2016 MTB Marathon world champion and runner-up in 2017 as well as current European champion, expects to perform with the consistency of the last years; “I want to be as consistent as possible during all year, but obviously my goal is to be at 100% for the XCM European and World Championships, without letting to be an athlete that achieves victories all year round”.

Andalucía Bike Race presented by Shimano is a first class UCI (International Cycling Union) event, awarding points for the world ranking. Ferreira was Olympian at Rio 2016 and the clasification for Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games begins this season, which could be another incentive for him; “classifying for Tokyo 2020 is secondary. The changes in the regulations don’t favour me, however I’m going to continue with my strategy of accumulating UCI points in stage races and maybe at some cross country (XCO) races… but I’ll not swap to cross country because of Tokyo 2020”, assures Tiago, who will defend his title in Andalucía Bike Race presented by Shimano from February 25th to March 2nd.