They lived up to expectations in the mountainous fifth stage by placing ninth and 12th, in that order, and Cuba held on to sixth place.
Randol Izquierdo and Vicente Sanabria continued their excellent pace in the Vuelta a Chiriquí 2024, Panama, and secured ninth and 12th places, in that order, in the mountainous fifth stage.
In this way, the veteran Yumurino retained his sixth place in the overall individual classification, and the young Avileño Izquierdo moved up to twelfth place and is fifth in the under-23 category.
With these outstanding performances in the 122.4-kilometre day, and the 22nd place finish of Yariel de León from Matanzas, the Cuban team remains sixth in the collective classification.
The other 23-year-old, José Domínguez, from the capital, reached the finish line in 33rd place, and now appears in 20th place overall and eighth in his age group, while Jorge Rojas, from Espiritu, came in 46th place, but before the last flying finish he was third.
The most notable, apart from the victory of Costa Rican Joseph Ramirez with 3:11.45 hours, was the performance of Bolivar Espinosa (Panama Cultura y Valores), who overtook his compatriot David Diaz (Rally Grant) to become the second and new absolute leader of the race.
In the important points award, which measures the combativeness for the final and intermediate finishes, five of the seven Cubans have scored points, which is evidence of their drive during the five days of competition.
Domínguez appears in 12th place with 14 points, followed by Izquierdo (13/12), the 50-year-old Sanabria (15/11), Rojas (21/7) and the under-23 Ricardo Cardoso (28/2). Only 30 riders out of the 70 remaining on the asphalt have made it onto this privileged list.
This Tuesday will take place the sixth of eight stages, the last one in high mountain terrain, over a distance of 127.2 kilometres from the city of David to the hill La Chancleta.
During the route the intermediate packs will be disputed in the kilometres 21.9 and 67.8, and in the 119.2 the prize of mountain of third category and the following one of second in the same finish line, where the best climbers of this traditional Panamanian turn will be defined.
