After winning the Spanish road championship last June, everything has gone quite smoothly for Marcel Camprubí (Barcelona, 2001). The triumph was a final duel with fellow Catalan cyclist Joel Nicolau on the tough Sabiñánigo ramp. “Joel is a rival and a friend,” Camprubí explains to ARA. “He rushed a bit at the final sprint and I was able to finish him off and win. I also have the sadness of seeing him cry as he crossed the finish line. It was a bit bittersweet,” Camprubí concludes. His sports director at the Pinarello Q36.5 team is also Catalan, Àlex Sans, whom he highlights as being key to his victory and for how he helped him through the earpiece with key phrases he received at the right moment: “He told me to come in third in the sprint.” And Marcel did. Also that “it would be a long sprint,” and so it was. And at certain moments, Àlex made Camprubí understand that he was the strongest cyclist in the group and that he should trust himself. “It was brutal,” Àlex Sans recalls via message to ARA. Ambition shines in Marcel with his broad smile as he waits to see how his body will react when the action begins at La Vuelta on Saturday when the thunder rolls.