The O Gran Camiño 2025 saw many leave satisfied: Derek Gee (winner of the time trial and yellow jersey), Magnus Cort Nielsen (who achieved a hat-trick including the points classification and 3rd overall), Sergio Chumil (victorious in the queen stage), Davide Piganzoli (2nd behind Gee in the general classification) and also the Emesports team of Ezequiel Mosquera, the race organizers to whom Oscar Pereiro, as responsible for relations with teams and riders, provided important assistance.
We turned to him to draw the conclusions of an event that this year compensated for the "nos" received from many champions and teams by presenting multiple innovations.
What is your assessment of this O Gran Camino 2025?
"The most important thing is that in this edition we found sunshine and good weather every day. The riders always made the race exciting and competitive, and for this we can only be happy. In the last two seasons we suffered a lot, while this year everything went really smoothly, and I think this can be a good thing for what this race wants to become. At the start from Portugal, I had the feeling that the level was lower compared to last year, and instead, in the end, I believe the race turned out to be more interesting and balanced."
Looking to the future, what can we expect for next year? A new place in the calendar perhaps?
"We must carefully evaluate the overall picture and understand if there will be the possibility of moving up a level. I think that, considering the sponsors, organization, and route, we are putting together a very important cycling race. We must grow without anyone telling us we can't do it."
What do you think about Derek Gee?
"We're talking about a rider who finished ninth in the last Tour de France. Looking at the winners, I would say we've been very lucky: the first year Valverde won, the second and third years Vingegaard, this year him. They are all great riders who have won. I'm sure Derek Gee will be one of those who will fight for the Tour podium in the future. It's too important for us that a rider like him won here, but he wasn't the only one. We saw many good riders like Piganzoli, the white jersey winner Soenens... these are all young riders who use races like this to show their qualities to the world."
Can we expect the addition of a sixth race day in the coming years?
"I don't think so. The format with 5 stages is perfect: one for each of the four provinces of Galicia plus one for the neighboring Portugal, which is also linked to the Camino Santiago. So I don't think we'll add anything else. The goal of the race is to move up a category."
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