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Mutara Gasana wins 1587 Tour de Valland
By Richard W. Wallace
Published: Zechyr 25, 1587


Mutara Gasana, the winner of the 1587 Tour de Valland


Lauren, Valland - Mutara Gasana won yesterday the 1587 Tour de Valland, becoming the first East Tambossan to win a Grand Tour - and the third Skathian to do so after Nylanders Lasse Mogensen (Ceribian Tour, 1573) and Elton Isaksson (Tour de Valland, 1582 and 1583, and Ceribian Tour, 1578 and 1582), and Batavian Johan Van Engelen (Tour de Valland, 1580).

The Tour was decided in the rather chaotic last three mountain stages, in which Gasana proved the stronger, steady and controlling rider. Before stage 17, it seemed that only the other two podium places were to be decided, but leader Jose Cardoso (MTS-Biassoni), who had been able to strongly dominate the second week of the race, suffered an unexpected physical breakdown during that stage, losing more than 5 minutes.

The East Tambossan champion did not lose his temple during the last mountain stage, which viewed an intense rivalry for the third place in the podium and the Youth classification between Kazemuran Ryouichi Takenaka (Nitenryu Cycling) and Vallish Benoît Montfleury (NDM Cycling), the former won his second stage this Tour, winning therefore the Mountain classification, while Montfleury was able to retain both the Youth classification (becoming the second rider to win it twice, as he did already in 1585, when he finished 6th) and the third place in the general classification, two minutesand seven seconds behid Gasana, and only twelve seconds ahead of the Kazemuran all-rounder.

Mutara Gasana (Dreher-Keszariakom) has achieved the success at the last years of his career, in which he served as domestique for other teammates. After starting his career in Sequoian and Nylander teams, he signed for Mordvanian Mordvelo team in 1578. In 1584, he signed for the Keszariakom team from Keszaria, sharing the leadership of the team with other riders such as Eskkyan Dennis Gonthier and the veteran Mestran champion Stavros Michelakakis. While not entirely a shocking result -Gasana ha proved to be a competent climber during his career, endind seven times in a Grand Tour's top ten, and winning top races such as the Tour of Nentsia, Tour of Svarna Surya, or the Tour of Gaels- not many considered him one favourite to reach the top 3 at the beginning of the Tour.

Alessio Gagliardi (BataVelo) was second, ending one minute and fourty-nine seconds behind Gasana. Gagliardi, 28, becomes the first Lomarren rider to reach the podium in the Tour de Valland. He was previously second in the Ceribian Tour in 1585.

Kubanizan Mykola Tarasenko (Nenergo Cycling) won three mountain stages, a feat which was not achieved in two decades. However, he was unable to be with the best riders in the last week, ending 14th. The Mountain classification was won by Kazemuran Ryouichi Takenaka, who won two of the last three mountain stages, and confirmed to be a rider to follow in the coming future. The only other rider  to win three stages this Tour was Oslanburgan Sven-Ole Wieth (Scholden-Gulcron) who won the Points classification for first time.