The Ruta del Sol`s second sprint in three days was enveloped in a short-lived but intense controversy after Spanish sprinter Carlos Barbero (Movistar) lodged an ultimately unsuccessful protest against Sacha Modolo (EF-Education First-Drapac) for alleged unfair manoeuvres. Second on the line at Herrera on stage 3, albeit a wheel length behind Modolo, Barbero was visibly annoyed at the finish and he quickly lodged a protest with the commissaires. The protest was almost equally quickly turned down, but Barbero was still fuming at the result. In his post-stage interview, he blasted Modolo for what he felt was unfair sprinting - a claim Modolo firmly denied.ADVERTISEMENT `I had the strength, but I didn`t get the results,` Barbero said. `Both he [Modolo] and I know that I was going faster, but he closed me in. But the commissaires have decided what they`ve decided. When you know you could have won, but don`t, you feel really terrible.` Barbero said he had entangled twice with Modolo in the final kilometre, first in a difficult left-hand corner 300 metres from the line. `He slammed into me in the last big corner, but I could get back up there to the front,` Barbero said. `Then there was a bit of a curve to the right, I went up on the left and that`s where he saw I was coming up fast, I had to brake and even then I could regain some distance on him. I think it`s very clear.
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