What do Maxim van Gils, Tadej Pogačar and Chris Froome have in common? They have all won the Ruta del Sol, or Vuelta a Andalucía, the important UCI 2.Pro early season race in the south of Spain.

The former is the odd one out, though, because the 24-year-old Belgian might have won the stage race overall, but he did it by winning just one stage. And that was less than five kilometres long. The five-stage race was decided by a 4.95km time trial, after farmer protests in Spain prevented the other four stages from taking place. To add to the weirdness, the time trial was completed on road bikes, with no TT originally scheduled.

As a result of all this, Van Gils won the 70th Ruta del Sol in a time of eight minutes and 17 seconds. Initially, it was thought he would win 225 UCI points for his short effort, but this has now been reduced to just 20 for winning the stage.

"I immediately rode to the bus after the time trial, then I heard that I had won and had to go to the podium, so it was great, it's still the Ruta del Sol," the GC winner said post-race. "It's a pity that the other stages have been cancelled now, but it is what it is. This was actually comparable to a 10-minute test on training camp, it's a good sign that I could win and it gives me confidence for what comes next."

For Alpecin-Deceuninck directeur sportif Gianni Meersman, it was a matter of "making the best" of the strange race situation, for which the organisers are blameless.

“When you need to tell the riders one hour before the start that they're not going to race tomorrow, it's mentally not easy to prepare yourself for a 5km time trial,” he said. “It's the same for everyone, you have to make the best of it."

“It was pretty eventful, or uneventful really,” Q36.5’s Mark Donovan told Cycling Weekly post-stage three (or should that be post-stage one?). “I knew what I was doing when I woke up this morning, but I didn't realise it was going to be the only thing I did this week, it's slightly strange.

“It felt chaotic, and I think a lot of the guys were a bit frustrated,” he continued. “Because it's the start of the year, it's a bit more frustrating because you had a full preparation for the season. This was the first race for a lot of guys, and you just want to get it done. People did a lot of preparation to be here, and you just want to get it under your belt.”

Spanish farmers have been protesting this week across the country, drawing police resources away from other events, including in Andalusia, where the UCI ProTour race was set to take place. As a result, the prestigious early season race was initially cut to four days, then to three days, and finally to just one.

“It's quite disappointing,” Alpecin-Deceuninck DS Meersman explained. “We feel for the organisers, it is what it is. They could not guarantee the safety of the riders, so there was no race of course. This weekend we'll have two nice training days, and then we'll go back home.

“It'll be a decent training camp in a nice location. It's better than being in Belgium or the Netherlands, where it's eight degrees and raining.”

It’s a similar story for Donovan, who will make the most of the location to get some kilometres in his legs, even if he would have “preferred a few hard days though, really”.

“We will stick around,” the 24-year-old said. “I had a flight booked on Sunday anyway, the team is all here, so we'll have a two-day training camp and then fly home as planned. It's not just the riders that come, it's all the buses and trucks and stuff, everyone has driven all the way down. It's a big waste of time for a lot of guys, which is a shame. You just have to make the best of it.”

Van Gils might have just had the most lucrative eight minutes of his career, but spare a moment for the 102 other riders, and even more staff, who travelled to the south of Spain for little more than a leg stretcher.

When is a stage race not a stage race? Well, when it is reduced to just one day. That is what has happened at the Vuelta a Andalucía 'Ruta del Sol' this week, with Spanish protests meaning four out of the five stages will not go ahead.

Maxim van Gils of Lotto-Dsnty triumphed on Friday, beating Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) by 10 seconds after the 4.95km time trial. It's an odd way to win a stage race.

Spanish farmers have been protesting this week across the country, drawing police resources away from other events, including in Andalusia, where the UCI ProTour race was set to take place. As a result, the prestigious early season race was initially cut to four days, then to three days, and finally to just one.

Protestors are blocking roads and disrupting traffic, making the running of a race that requires police help impossible. It is not the first time this season that a race has been affected by protests, with the Etoile de Bessèges in France forced to cancel a stage too.

In a statement published on Friday afternoon, shortly before stage three was set to get underway, the Ruta del Sol organisers said: "After endless efforts, despite having all the permits and complying with the requirements established by the regulations, the authorities have not been able to ensure the assistance of the police necessary to provide security for the race and all its riders in the two next stages. 

"Given this abnormal situation, beyond our organisation, we have had no choice but to suspend the race, holding only the time trial scheduled for this Friday in the city of Alcaudete."

As a result, the 103 riders present in southern Spain will only take part in the 4.95km time trial this afternoon, in a stage that will decide the overall general classification, too.

Seven WorldTour teams were present in Andalusia for the stage race: UAE Team Emirates, Bahrain Victorious, Movistar, Jayco-AlUla, Astana Qazaqstan, Alpecin-Deceuninck and Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale. Their riders will now have to find another way to build form.

The organisers continued: "Last Wednesday, once the authorities had ordered the withdrawal of the Guardia Civil troops who had been assigned to the race, this organisation has made a superhuman effort to be able to carry it out." It went on to thank all the bodies that had made an effort to stage the race.

"It is not only the significant economic and image damage that it has had on the organisation, but the serious damage to the image of Andalusian and Spanish cycling," the statement read. "Therefore, we want to thank the numerous examples of support and solidarity that we have received this week."

Spanish farmers are protesting over issues including purported unfair competition from non-EU countries, bureaucratic procedures, and lack of government support.

Magnus Sheffield won his first professional race on stage three of the Ruta del Sol, bombing ahead of the rest of the pack during the final sprint to open up a three second gap.

The 19-year-old, who joined Ineos Grenadiers at the start of 2022, broke away from the bunch with just half a kilometre left in the race and managed to hang on as he powered his way to a commanding victory. 

The bunch, containing riders such as Simon Clarke (Israel-Premier Tech), Simon Yates (BikeExchange-Jayco), and Alessandro Covi (UAE Team Emirates), were unable to keep pace with Sheffield during his aggressive attack for the finish line in Otura. 

Covi holds onto the leader's jersey after the conclusion of stage three though, leading Miguel Ángel López (Astana) by just eight seconds as both finished in the top-10 of stage three. Two more stages remain in the Ruta del Sol. 

HOW IT HAPPENED

Maintaining the lowest profile score of the five stages in the Ruta del Sol, stage three presented an undulating course with the sprinters expected to take centre stage.

A 153.2km route heading southeast from Lucena to Otura, riders had to contend with four mountain passes, three of which reach gradients in excess of five per cent. However, after the Alto de Cacín climb, the sprinters inevitably took over as they converged on the finish line Otura. 

Before the beginning of the third stage of the Ruta del Sol, Gazprom-RusVelo and Human Powered Health both withdrew after multiple team members returned positive Covid-19 tests. 

Matteo Trentin (UAE Team Emirates), a fast finisher, entered the third stage as the favourite to take the win. 

Early on in the race, four riders broke free from the peloton to build up a gap of at least two minutes, which they maintained for over 100km. The breakaway group included Jon Barrenetxea (Caja Rural–Seguros RGA), Ibai Azurmendi, Xabier Isasa (Euskaltel–Euskadi) and Juan Antonio López-Cózar (Burgos BH), but López-Cózar failed to hang on and was dropped with 45km left, followed by Barrenetxea shortly after. 

Barrenetxea did manage to maintain his lead in the KOM classification though, picking up 15 points across the course of the stage. 

With less than 30km to go, and once the riders had completed all of the major climbs in the day, the action really started to intensify. Multiple attacks from riders such as Lennard Kämna (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Simon Yates (Team BikeExchange-Jayco) from the peloton helped close the gap to the leading group, until eventually the two merged with just over 20km. 

In the final kilometres of the race, on the approach to Otura, Mikel Landa and Damiano Caruso, both of Bahrain-Victorious, were dropped from the peloton. Ineos Grenadiers riders Jhonatan Narváez and Carlos Rodríguez also suffered a crash with just 2.5km left too, ending their races prematurely. 

Kämna attempted an attack, before 19-year-old Magnus Sheffield stole the victory by bombing away from the sprinters in a display of complete class. His first professional victory, the 19-year-old secured this on just his ninth race day for Ineos Grenadiers, who he joined at the beginning of 2022.

RESULTS

1. Magnus Sheffield (USA) Ineos Grenadiers, in 3-54-37
2. Simon Clarke (Aus) Israel-Premier Tech at 3 seconds
3. Stan Dewulf (Bel) AG2R Citroën Team at 3s
4. Ben Turner (GBr) Ineos Grenadiers at 3s
5. Mauri Vansevenant (Bel) Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl at 3s
6. Wout Poels (Ned) Bahrain-Victorious at 3s
7. Alessandro Covi (Ita) UAE Team Emirates at 3s
8. Simon Yates (GBr) Team BikeExchange-Jayco at 3s
9. Miguel Ángel López (Col) Astana Qazaqstan Team at 3s
10. Dries Devenyns (Bel) Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl Team at 3s

GENERAL CLASSIFICATION AFTER STAGE THREE

1. Alessandro Covi (Ita) UAE Team Emirates, in 13-09-41
2. Miguel Ángel López (Col) Astana Qazaqstan Team at 8 seconds
3. Simon Clarke (Aus) Israel-Premier Tech at 10s
4. Dries Devenyns (Bel) Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl Team at 10s
5. Steff Cras (Bel) Lotto Soudal at 10s
6. Cristián Rodríguez (Spa) TotalEnergies at 10s
7. Wout Poels (Ned) Bahrain-Victorious at 16s
8. Simon Yates (GBr) Team BikeExchange-Jayco at 19s
9. Emanuel Buchmann (Ger) Bora-Hansgrohe) at 19s
10. Ben O'Connor (Aus) AG2R Citroën Team at 19s

Alessandro Covi of UAE Team Emirates picked up his second win of the year as he made a late attack to snatch stage two of the Ruta del Sol 2022.

The Italian, who looked strong in the opening stage of the Andalucian five-day race, broke away from the bunch inside the final kilometre and was untouchable on the steep cobbled finish in Alcalá la Real. 

Miguel Ángel Lopez (Astana Qazaqstan Team) tried to hunt down the 23-year-old in the final 100m but his efforts were in vain as Covi came home three seconds ahead of the Colombian.

Scoring UAE Team Emirates’ fifth win of the year, the Italian also took the yellow leader’s jersey, leading Ander Okamika (Burgos-BH) by five seconds. 

How it happened

The riders faced another undulating parcour for the second stage of the Ruta del Sol, with a 150.6km route heading north-east from Archidona.

A testing finish then awaited in Alcalá la Real with a steep cobbled climb up to the Castillo de la Mota, where the gradient reached just over 11% in places.

One of the likely favourites for the stage, Michael Woods (Israel-Premier Tech), didn’t start in Archidona after pulling out of the race due to a stomach bug.

Five riders broke free from the peloton shortly after the flag dropped and built up a gap of nearly five minutes. 

Kamil Małecki (Lotto Soudal) was the only WorldTour rider in a group that also contained four Spaniards, Diego Sevilla (EOLO-Kometa), Gotzon Martín (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Raúl García Pierna (Equipo Kern Pharma) and Jon Barrenetxea (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA).

However, having learnt from their mistakes on the opening day of the Ruta del Sol, the peloton were in no mood to give the breakaway even a glimmer of hope as they kept a tight grasp on the time gap.

By the time the foot of the Alto de Las Grajeras was reached, with around 30km to go, the deficit had been cut to under a minute.

Barrenetxea, after picking up several KOM points earlier in the day, took three points at the summit to overtake his team-mate Álvaro Cuadros and move into the lead of the classification.

Sevilla was the first of the five riders to be dropped as the remainder of the break looked to push on when they reached Peurto del Castillo, the final categorized climb before the finish. 

However, they were rapidly swallowed up by the bunch with 10km to go.

The peloton then stretched out as they descended and made their way towards Alcalá la Real.

Ineos Grenadiers’ Eddie Dunbar and Ben Turner created a ferocious tempo that dropped the yellow jersey holder Rune Herregodts (Sport-Vlaanderen-Baloise) as a result.

Inside the final kilometre, Wout Poels (Bahrain-Victorious) made an early attack, but he was soon caught and Covi counter-attacked with no one able to get onto his wheel.

The Italian, who tried to make a jump on the pack in the previous stage, did enough to create a gap between himself and the rest of the field inside the last 300m.

He then looked at ease over the cobbled section up to the line as the likes of López, Iván Sosa (Movistar Team) and others faltered when the gradient ramped up. 

Covi’s win sees him move into the overall lead of the race, as well as taking top spot in the points classification, leading stage one winner Herregodts by nine points.

Results

VUELTA A ANDALUCIA RUTA CICLISTA DEL SOL 2022, STAGE TWO: ARCHIDONA - ALCALÁ LA REAL (150.6KM) 

1. Alessandro Covi (Ita) UAE Team Emirates in 3-57-46
2. Miguel Ángel Lopez (Col) Astana Qazaqstan Team  at 3 seconds
3. Iván Sosa (Col) Movistar Team at 4s
4. Steff Cras (Bel) Lotto Soudal at 5s
5. Gonzalo Serrano (Spa) Movistar at 5s
6. Dries Devenyns (Bel) Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl Team at 5s
7. Domenico Pozzovivo (Ita) Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux at 5s
8. Simon Clarke (Aus) Israel-Premier Tech at 5s
9. Cristián Rodríguez (Spa) TotalEnergies at 5s
10. Wout Poels (Ned) Bahrain-Victorious at 5s

GENERAL CLASSIFICATION AFTER STAGE TWO

1. Alessandro Covi (Ita) UAE Team Emirates in 9-15-01
2. Ander Okamika (Esp) Burgos-BH at 5 seconds
3. Iván Sosa (Col) Movistar Team at 10s
4. Dries Devenyns (Bel) Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl Team at 11s
5. Simon Clarke (Aus) Israel-Premier Tech at 11s
6. Steff Cras (Bel) Lotto Soudal at 11s
7. Cristián Rodríguez (Spa) TotalEnergies at 11s
8. Domenico Pozzovivo (Ita) Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux at 11s
9. Carlos Rodriguez (Spa) Ineos Grenadiers at 11s
10. Gonzalo Serrano (Spa) Movistar at 16s

Sport Vlaanderen–Baloise’s Rune Herregodts outlasted the rest of the breakaway to win the first stage of the Ruta del Sol 2022 and move into the overall lead.

The Belgian rider forced his way past Stephen Bassett (Human Powered Health) in the final 100m of a punchy finish in Iznájar to secure his team’s first win of the year.

His first victory since last year’s Ronde van Drenthe, Herregodts was part of a six-man breakaway that held off the peloton all the way to the line in Andalucia.

Bassett rolled over the line two seconds behind the Belgian, alongside Spaniard Ander Okamika (Burgos-BH).

British rider Mark Christian (EOLO-Kometa) was with the leading group right until the final kilometre but eventually finished sixth, 18 seconds behind Herregodts.

How it happened

The opening stage of the Ruta del Sol saw the peloton head east over hilly terrain in Andalucia, travelling 200.7km from Ubrique to Iznájar.

Eight riders were quick to head off up the road, representing seven different pro teams.

Three Spaniards in the form of Álvaro Cuadros (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA), Xabier Isasa (Euskaltel-Euskadi) and Ander Okamika (Burgos-BH) were part of the break.

They were joined by the Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise duo of Lindsay De Vylder and Rune Herregodts as well as British rider Mark Christian (EOLO-Kometa), Vojtěch Řepa (Equipo Kern Pharma) and Stephen Bassett (Human Powered Health).

The breakaway didn’t mess about in gaining an advantage on the bunch either, creating a 15-minute gap by the time they reached the first climb after just 25km.

It was Cuadros who picked up the full 10 points at the summit of Puerto de El Boyar.

However, with the peloton keen to not let the stage slip out of their grasp before it had even really begun, soon started eating into to the eight-man group’s lead as the second KOM point was reached at Puerto de Algámitas.

Cuadros scooped up another two to add to his KOM points total, and he would ultimately lead the way in that competition come the end of the day.

As the race moved into the final 50km, the bunch had cut the deficit to seven minutes although the breakaway’s strong resistance made it anything but easy for the WorldTour teams to reel them in.

By the time the riders reached the foot of the Alto La Parilla, the final major climb of the day, the time difference still sat at more than four and a half minutes as Bora-Hansgrohe and Movistar began to ride at the front of the peloton.

The breakaway riders soon started to whittle each other down, with Cuadros and Řepa the first to be dropped.

Team BikeExchange–Jayco and Ineos Grenadiers joined the chase on the Alto La Parilla, but their efforts were to be in vain as the six riders in front summitted the final KOM with a two-minute lead.

The lead group descended into the valley in Iznájar with a comfortable gap on the chasing pack and the stage victory almost assured.

Herregodts, Bassett and Isasa all pushed on as the steep kicker to the line came into sight, yet the Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise rider had the most left in his legs after more than 180km out in front. 

Alessandro Covi (UAE Team Emirates) jumped clear from the bunch inside the final kilometre, only to be chased down by Gonzalo Serrano (Movistar) and Matteo Trentin (UAE Team Emirates).

The Italian came in seventh, 31 seconds down on the stage winner, with the rest of the bunch crossing the line seven seconds later.

Results

Vuelta a Andalucia Ruta Ciclista Del Sol 2022, stage one: UBRIQUE - IZNÁJAR (200KM) 

1. Rune Herregodts (Bel) Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise in 5-16-44
2. Stephen Bassett (Usa) Human Powered Health at 2 seconds
3. Ander Okamika (Esp) Burgos-BH at 2s
4. Xabier Isasa (Esp) Euskaltel-Euskadi at 12s
5. Lindsay De Vylder (Bel) Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise at 15s
6. Mark Christian (GBr) EOLO-Kometa at 18s
7. Alessandro Covi (Ita) UAE Team Emirates at 31s
8. Gonzalo Serrano (Spa) Movistar at 37s
9. Matteo Trentin (Ita) UAE Team Emirates at 37s
10. Benoît Cosnefroy (Fra) AG2R Citroën at 38s

General classification after stage one

1. Rune Herregodts (Bel) Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise in 5-16-44
2. Stephen Bassett (Usa) Human Powered Health at 2 seconds
3. Ander Okamika (Esp) Burgos-BH at 2s
4. Xabier Isasa (Esp) Euskaltel-Euskadi at 12s
5. Lindsay De Vylder (Bel) Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise at 15s
6. Mark Christian (GBr) EOLO-Kometa at 18s
7. Alessandro Covi (Ita) UAE Team Emirates at 31s
8. Gonzalo Serrano (Esp) Movistar at 37s
9. Matteo Trentin (Ita) UAE Team Emirates at 37s
10. Benoît Cosnefroy (Fra) AG2R Citroën at 38s

Ethan Hayter was victorious on the final stage of the Ruta del Sol 2021, as Miguel Ángel López took the overall title in Spain.

Hayter won stage five, a short 107km run from Vera to Pulpí, from a climber’s sprint, after a lumpy day in Andalucia. 

As Hayter took his victory, two riders went down hard in the sprint alongside him, with Daryl Impey (Israel Start-Up Nation) and Robert Stannard (Team BikeExchange) both hitting the deck.  

The Ineos Grenadiers rider claimed his fifth pro win, bringing his tally of 2021 wins to four. 

López (Movistar) finished in the front group on stage five, taking fourth place, securing the overall title by 20 seconds ahead of Antwan Tolehoek (Jumbo-Visma). Hayter finished seventh overall, 2-13 behind Lopez. 

Hayter has been a star rider this season, having won a stage of Coppi e Bartali stage race in March, then taking a stage of the Volta ao Algarve.

The 22-year-old almost won overall in Algarve, but lost time in a crash on the stage four time trial before he was distanced on the final stage, eventually finishing second. 

He then bounced back from the disappointment by winning the second stage of Ruta del Sol and wearing the leader’s jersey for one stage, before he was dropped by Lopez on the final climb the following day. 

López won stage three in Villarrodrigo after another tough climbing day, taking the day by just two seconds over Tolhoek, with Hayter finishing in 12th place- 2-23 down. 

The stage four sprint was won by André Griepel (Israel Start-Up Nation), his second win of the season. 

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On stage five, Ineos Grenadiers set a strong pace to catch the breakaway 10km from the finish, with the squad causing a split in the peloton 6.5km from the finish, before Hayter closed out the race with a victory. 

Ruta del Sol 2021 stage five, Vera to Pulpí (107km) 

1. Ethan Hayter (GBr) Ineos Grenadiers, in 2-27-12
2. Philipp Walsleben (Ger) Alpecin-Fenix
3. Toms Skujins (Lat) Trek-Segafredo, all at same time

General classification after stage five 

1. Miguel Ángel López (Col) Movistar, in 21-06-55 
2. Antwan Tolhoek (Ned) Jumbo-Visma, at 20s
3. Julen Amezqueta (Esp) Caja Rural-Seguros RGA, at 1-10 

The peloton at the 2021 Ruta del Sol delayed the start of stage four as a protest over safety conditions in the race.

On Friday (May 21), the professional cyclists union, the Cyclistes Professionnels Associés (CPA) announced that riders refused to start at the scheduled time in Baza, Spain for the 182km stage, arguing they were put in “serious danger” the previous day. 

The stage has since got underway, but the CPA said the protest was symbolic to attract the attention of the race organisers and the UCI.

In a statement released on Friday morning, the CPA said: “The riders Vuelta a Andalucia will delay the start of today’s stage by a few minutes to protest against the lack of attention that has been given to their safety requests at the race.

“The rider protest against the choice of routes, gravel descents, and large potholes, which in yesterday’s stage put their safety and well-being in serious danger. 

“This difficult situation is to be added to the long and tiring transfers to which the athletes have been subjected during this race. 

“They understand the organisers difficulties due to the post-pandemic period but they ask for more attention and respect to be given to this situation.” 

Stage four of the race to Cúllar Vega looks like the first opportunity for the sprinters, after three tough climbing stages. 

Miguel Ángel López (Movistar) currently leads the race after knocking Britain’s Ethan Hayter (Ineos Grenadiers) off the top spot with his stage victory on day three. 

Rider safety has been a significant talking point in pro cycling in the last two seasons, following a number of major crashes, including Fabio Jakobsen’s crash at the 2020 Tour of Poland and Remco Evenepoel’s fall from a bridge in Il Lombardia last year.

The UCI has taken a number of steps this season to improve rider safety, which including banning the infamous downhill finish into Katowice in the Tour of Poland, and rules about the disposal of bidons at the roadside. 

Ruta del Sol is a 2.Pro (one level below WorldTour) stage race, taking place over five stages and features nine WorldTour teams this season, including Ineos Grenadiers, Deceuninck - Quick-Step and Jumbo-Visma. 

Cycling Weekly has approached the race organiser for comment. 

Miguel Ángel López struck back with a stage victory and the race lead on day three of the Ruta del Sol 2021. 

The Colombian Grand Tour contender, riding his first season with Movistar, missed out to Britain’s Ethan Hayter on the second stage, but came back with a victory the following day on a stiff uphill finish. 

López kicked off the attacking in the final 20km of the stage, raced from Bease de Segura to Villarrodrigo over 176km, bridging across to the breakaway and kicking once more in the final 400m to take the stage. 

The 27-year-old took victory by just two seconds ahead of Antwan Tolhoek (Jumbo-Visma) after five hours of racing, but he’d done enough to distance Hayter and move into the race lead. 

López had built up a collection of stage race victories in recent years, most recently winning the 2019 Volta a Catalunya overall.

But his dreams of Grand Tour victory have not yet become a reality, after he finished third in both the 2018 Giro d’Italia and the Vuelta a España while riding for Astana.

Last year López looked certain to take a podium finish in the Tour de France, but he slipped back to sixth place on the final time trial, just one day from Paris.

For 2021, he has now switched to Spanish WorldTour squad Movistar and will be leading the team at the Tour de France this summer. 

This year he has raced relatively little with the Tour de Romandie his only stage race so far before the Ruta del Sol.

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López finished 35th overall in Switzerland, his best stage finish was 20th on the prologue time trial. 

Ruta del Sol 2021 stage three, Beas de Segura to Villarodrigo 

1. Miguel Ángel López (Col) Movistar, 5-03-26
2. Antwan Tolhoek (Ned) Jumbo-Visma, at 2s
3. James Piccoli (Can) Israel Start-Up Nation, at 6s 

General classification after stage three

1. Miguel Ángel López (Col) Movistar 

Jakob Fuglsang won the Ruta del Sol with a strong time trial performance on stage five to successfully defend his title.

The Dane finished less than a second behind Dylan Teuns (Bahrain-McLaren) who won the stage, with Alex Edmondson (Mitchelton-Scott) finishing in third, two seconds down, having sat in the hot seat for most of the day.

Alex Edmondson set the best early time of just under 18 minutes, and as more riders rolled into the finish it looked like the Australian's time would not be bested.

Brandon McNulty capped off an impressive week where he often found himself at the sharp end of the race with more experienced rivals. The 21-year-old faded slightly from an intermediate check point that had him right around the same time as Teuns but finishing within the top five to finish seventh overall, just over three minutes down on Fuglsang.

Teuns' team-mate Mikel Landa put in a disappointing time trial performance to slip to third in the GC, losing nearly a minute to Fuglsang and allowing Jack Haig (Mitchelton-Scott) to take second place overall. Bahrain-McLaren have already said they hope to improve the Spaniard's time trialling abilities ahead of the Tour de France this summer, and on this evidence, there is still work to do.

After Haig's victory on stage four, both the Australian and Teuns made up for their mistake on stage three when they took the final corner onto the finishing straight wide, which allowed Fuglsang to power through and take the victory for himself.

Results

Ruta del Sol 2020, stage five: Mijas to Mijas (13km)

1. Dylan Teuns (Bel) Bahrain-McLaren, in 17-57

2. Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Astana, at 0.8 seconds

3. Alex Edmondson (Aus) Mitchelton-Scott, at 2s

4. Pello Bilbao (Esp) Bahrain-McLaren, at 3s

5. Brandon McNulty (USA) UAE Team Emirates, at 9s

6. Ion Izagirre (Esp) Astana, at 17s

7. Jack Haig (Aus) Mitchelton-Scott, at 24s

8. Chris Harper (Aus) Jumbo-Visma, at 31s

9. Nelson Oliveira (Por) Movistar, at 32s

10. Sonny Colbrelli (Ita) Bahrain-McLaren, at 33s

Final general classification

1. Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Astana, in 17-47-58

2. Jack Haig (Aus) Mitchelton-Scott, at 59 seconds

3. Mikel Landa (Esp) Bahrain-McLaren, at 1-12

4. Ion Izagirre (Esp) Astana, at 1-18

5. Dylan Teuns (Bel) Bahrain-McLaren, at 1-45

6. Pello Bilbao (Esp) Bahrain-McLaren, at 1-47

7. Brandon McNulty (USA) UAE Team Emirates, at 3-08

8. Marc Soler (Esp) Movistar, at 3-21

9. Rubén Fernández (Esp) Fundación-Orbea, at 3-33

10. Harm Vanhoucke (Bel) Lotto-Soudal, at 4-12

Jack Haig beat race leader Jakob Fuglsang (Astana) and Mikel Landa (Bahrain-McLaren) in a sprint finish to take victory on the queen stage of the Ruta del Sol.

The Mitchelton-Scott rider crested the summit of the category one Alto del Purche, which reached gradients of over 10 per cent, alongside Fuglsang and Landa, before biding his time and proving to have the freshest legs of the trio in the finishing straight.

After missing turns on the 20km descent, Landa finally attacked and opened up his sprint  coming out of the roundabout in final kilometre. Fuglsang then came past the Bahrain-McLaren rider before Haig pulled clear to take the stage victory.

Fuglsang, who finished second ahead of Landa, retains his race lead with just the individual time trial on stage five remaining. The Dane leads his Spanish rival by 14 seconds.

The young American Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates) finished fourth ahead of Ion Izagirre (Astana) a few seconds later after the pair were dislodged in the final few hundred metres of climbing.

Haig has now put the disastrous finish of stage three behind him, where he and Dylan Teuns (Bahrain-McLaren) went wide on the corner onto the finishing straight, allowing Fuglsang to come through and snatch victory. Teuns failed to take retribution in the same way Haig did as he finished in sixth, leading a large group over the finish line.

The stage race concludes tomorrow with a 13km individual time trial around Mijas.

How it happened

The 125km route of stage four featured a couple of category three climbs on the way from Villanueva Mesia to Granada, but the main action of the day would take place on the first category Alto del Purche. The 8.8km climb had an average gradient of 7.8 per cent, with the opening section reaching 10.7 per cent in places.

A number of familiar faces found themselves in the break for the second day in a row. Jumbo-Visma's Lennard Hofstede, Silvan Dillier (Ag2r La Mondiale) and James Shaw (Riwal Readynez). With 45km to go the gap was hovering around the one minute mark as Bahrain-McLaren turned the pace up at the front of the peloton.

On the approach to Alto del Purche, Vuelta a España stage winner Ángel Madrazo (Burgos-BH) was the only man in the break left out front, with his gap at 20 seconds with 28km remaining.

The already reduced peloton began to split apart on the opening slopes of the climb, with Teuns dropping to the back as his Bahrain-McLaren team-mate Matej Mohorič pulled off the front, his work done for the day.

Mikel Landa, Jakob Fuglsang and Jack Haig were all looking very fresh, tucked in the front of the group, with the Dane launching an attack halfway up the climb. A group of five led by Landa began chasing him down and within a kilometre Fuglsang was brought back into the fold.

Movistar's Marc Soler made it back into the group that also contained Brandon McNulty, Ion Izagirre, and Jack Haig, with Fuglsang and Landa arguing at the front over workloads, the Spaniard not willing to help out the race leader after leading the effort to bring him back down the road.

Izagirre offered some respite for Fuglsang with 22km to go as he took over on the front, but a kilometre later he was dropped, with Soler having already fallen back.

McNulty was the next to stretch his legs, with Landa seeming content to let the young American up the road, but Fuglsang took charge and dragged the group back up to the UAE Team Emirates rider.

As Izagirre got himself back onto the group, McNulty attacked again on the slight downhill before the final kick up to the summit, but Fuglsang chased him down once more. Jack Haig finally showed his hand and attacked with 18km remaining, with McNulty being dropped as he paid for his previous efforts.

Fuglsang and Landa were the only two who could follow Haig and the trio descended down winding rounds into Granada keeping McNulty and Izagirre at bay, 30 seconds behind with 3km to go.

The three riders began to look at each other as thoughts turned to the stage victory. Haig took the initiative first, attacking with 1.3km to the finish line. Fuglsang was once again on hand to bring him back in before putting in his own powerful move, temporarily moving clear of the other two.

Coming out of the final roundabout into the finishing straight, Landa attacked, but Fuglsang closed and passed him easily before Haig proved to have the freshest legs and cross the line first to deny the Dane a third stage win.

Results

Ruta del Sol 2020, stage four: Villanueva Mesia to Granada (125km)

1. Jack Haig (Aus) Mitchelton-Scott, in 3-07-35

2. Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Astana

3. Mikel Landa (Esp) Bahrain-McLaren, both at same time

4. Ion Izagirre (Esp) Astana, at 27 seconds

5. Brandon McNulty (USA) UAE Team Emirates, at same time

6. Dylan Teuns (Bel) Bahrain-McLaren, at 1-14

7. Marc Soler (Esp) Movistar

8. Álvaro Cuadros (Esp) Caja Rural - Seguros RGA

9. Harm Vanhoucke (Bel) Lotto-Soudal

10. Pello Bilbao (Esp) Bahrain-McLaren, all at same time

General classification after stage four

1. Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Astana, in 17-30-01

2. Mikel Landa (Esp) Bahrain-McLaren, at 14 seconds

3. Jack Haig (Aus) Mitchelton-Scott, at 35s

4. Ion Izagirre (Esp) Astana, at 1-01

5. Pello Bilbao (Esp) Bahrain-McLaren, at 1-44

6. Dylan Teuns (Bel) Bahrain-McLaren, at 1-45

7. Marc Soler (Esp) Movistar, at 2-41

8. Rubén Fernández (Esp) Fundación-Orbea, at 2-50

9. Harm Vanhoucke (Bel) Lotto-Soudal, at same time

10. Brandon McNulty (USA) UAE Team Emirates, at 2-59

Jakob Fuglsang was gifted a second stage win and an opportunity to consolidate his overall lead on stage three of the Ruta del Sol.

The Dane was in third wheel on the approach to the finishing straight when the two riders in front of him, Dylan Teuns (Bahrain-McLaren) and Jack Haig (Mitchelton-Scott), misread a sharp corner and went wide, allowing Fuglsang through to sprint for the line.

The Astana rider finished ahead of Pello Bilbao (Bahrain-McLaren) on the line with UAE Team Emirates' Brandon McNulty in third. Teuns and Haig lost eight seconds as they finished sixth and seventh.

Fuglsang now increases his lead in the general classification to 14 seconds over Bahrain-McLaren's Mikel Landa, with two stages remaining.

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Stage four features the punishing category one Alto del Purche climb 20km from the line, while the final stage five time trial will crown the overall winner.

How it happened

The lumpy parcours offered up two first category and two second category climbs over the lumpy 176.9km course, before a final 1.3km kick up to the line, averaging 8.7 per cent.

Unfortunately a loss of television pictures, apparently partly due to military planes being in the area, meant a lot of the action went unseen for everyone who wasn't at the roadside between Jáen and Ubeda.

However, when footage began to flicker into life with around 50km to go, the race was still finely poised.

Lennard Hofstede (Jumbo-Visma), Andrey Zeits (Mitchelton-Scott), Enric Mas (Movistar), Damiano Caruso (Bahrain-McLaren), Silvan Dillier (Ag2r La Mondiale), Loïc Vliegen (Circus - Wanty Gobert), Mikel Bizkarra (Fundación-Orbea), Floris De Tier, Jimmy Janssens and Louis Vervaeke (all Alpecin-Fenix)  were out in front as a potentially formidable breakaway offering, holding a gap of two minutes.

On the final category two climb of Puerto de Baeza, Mas splintered the break with 18 km to go, leaving a six-man group containing all three Alpecin-Fenix riders, which meant their companions were not overly keen to contribute to the workload.

As the escapees struggled to work together, further riders began to drop off and also come back into the fold, eventually leaving a five-man front group of Dillier, Mas, Caruso, De Tier and Bizkarra up front.

With 8.5km to go, the gap was still at 1-15 with just the final ramp up to the finish and the quintet starting to collaborate more effectively, which pushed the peloton to start breaking apart behind as they took up the chase.

As the road kicked up in the final sharp incline, suddenly it was only Mas left out front with the GC favourites right behind the Spaniard.

2.5km from the finish line, the Movistar man was caught with his compatriot Mikel Landa (Bahrain-McLaren) leading the group past him.

His former Movistar team-mate Marc Soler then took over on the front, as Fuglsang came up to third wheel, with eight riders left in the front group.

Jack Haig then put in an attack, with Fuglsang following and Dylan Teuns quick onto his wheel. With some smart cornering through the narrow streets, Teuns jumped up to first wheel and looked to be about to lead the race onto the finishing straight.

However, the sharp corner just before spelled disaster for the Belgian. He overshot the corner, going very wide, with Haig careering off the course behind him, allowing Fuglsang to power on through and sprint over the line first.

Teuns' team-mate Pello Bilbao pushed Fuglsang all the way and finished second with UAE Team Emirates' Brandon McNulty in third.

Teuns finished in sixth, eight seconds down, just ahead of Haig in seventh.

Results

Ruta del Sol 2020, stage three: Jáen to Ubeda (176.9km)

1. Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Astana, in 4-33-25

2. Pello Bilbao (Esp) Bahrain-McLaren, at same time

3. Brandon McNulty (USA) UAE Team Emirates, at one second

4. Ion Izagirre (Esp) Astana, at 4s

5. Marc Soler (Esp) Movistar, at 6s

6. Dylan Teuns (Bel) Bahrain-McLaren, at 8s

7. Jack Haig (Aus) Mitchelton-Scott

8. Mikel Landa (Esp) Bahrain-McLaren, both at same time

9. Antwan Tolhoek (Ned) Jumbo-Visma, at 13s

10. Maurits Lammertink (Ned) Circus - Wanty Gobert, at 26s

General classification after stage three

1. Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Astana, in 14-22-26

2. Mikel Landa (Esp) Bahrain-McLaren, at 14 seconds

3. Pello Bilbao (Esp) Bahrain-McLaren, at 30s

4. Dylan Teuns (Bel) Bahrain-McLaren, at 31s

5. Ion Izagirre (Esp) Astana, at 34s

6. Jack Haig (Aus) Mitchelton-Scott, at 35s

7. Chris Harper (Aus) Jumbo-Visma, at 1-23

8. Marc Soler (Esp) Movistar, at 1-27

9. Rubén Fernández (Esp) Funación-Orbea, at 1-36

10. Harm Vanhoucke (Bel) Lotto-Soudal, at same time

Victory on day two of the Ruta del Sol went Gonazalo Serrano, who denied the favourites in the tough final climb.

Caja Rural-Seguros rider Serrano launched a perfectly paced attack in the final kilometre as the road ramped up to almost 18 per cent, pushing all the way to the line and holding of a final surge from the bunch.

Despite the best efforts of Movistar and Bahrain-McLaren, it was 25-year-old Serrano who triumphed to take his first pro victory.

Jakob Fuglsang (Astana) finished just four second behind the stage winner and holds onto the race lead heading into stage three.

How it happened

Another unpredictable stage was on the cards for day two of the Ruta del Sol 2020, after the general classification exploded on the opening stage in Andalusia.

The stage ran over 198.1km from Sevilla to Iznajar in Spain’s southern region, with another testing parcours for the peloton.

After a 50km flat start, the roads ramped up into the first of three categorised climbs on the route – the 4km and five per cent average Puerto de Calera – followed shortly after the by the third cat Alto Valle Sierra Sur (2.8km at 6.6 per cent).

Then a rolling middle section followed over the next 70km, before things ramped up again for the final.

The last categorised climb of the day was Puerto de la Parrilla, a third category rise over 8.8km at 3.6 per cent, which topped out with 13km to race.

After dropping down again, the leaders would then face a short and sharp climb in the final kilometre, averaging more than eight per cent gradient and reaching a maximum of almost 18, up to the line to decide the stage.

The day’s breakaway featured five hopefuls who stood a chance of making it to the line over the rolling terrain.

Juan Felipe Osoria (Burgos-BH), Taco van der Hoorn (Jumbo-Visma), Alexis Gougeard (Ag2r La Mondiale), Jerome Cousin (Total Direct Energie) and Britain’s Matt Holmes (Lotto-Soudal) made up the day’s escape, and pulled out an almost four-minute gap at the maximum.

The peloton began to reel them in and the gap was down to 90 seconds as the race approached the final categorised climb.

Van der Hoorn and Gougeard put in an attack on the early slopes of the climb, as Holmes and Osoria were forced to chase them down, with the Brit putting in a substantial effort to close down the gap.

But that group were eventually caught near the summit, which prompted a response from Stefano Oldani (Lotto-Soudal) and Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates) who launched their own two-up attack.

They led the race on the descent, but never pulled out a substantial gap and were finally caught with just under 5km to race.

Movistar led the charge on the remaining downhill section, with Mitchelton-Scott tied to their wheels at the head of the bunch, with the Spanish team leading the charge onto the final climb with 1km to race.

Gonzalo Serrano from Caja-Rural launched a huge attack in the first 200 metres of the climb and pulled out a considerable gap, looking over his shoulder to see the peloton not far behind.

But he wouldn’t be dissuaded and continued with his move, gradually pulling the finish line within sight on the ultra-steep gradients.

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The bunch surged behind as Dylan Teuns (Bahrain-McLaren) and Juan José Lobato (Fundación-Orbea) tried to chase down the leader, but Serrano held on to take his first pro win.

Fuglsang will hold onto his race lead with a four-second advantage over Mikel Landa (Bahrain-McLaren).

Ruta del Sol 2020, stage two: Sevilla to Iznajar (198.1km)

1. Gonazalo Serrano (Esp) Caja Rural-Seguros RGA, in 5-07-49

2. Juan José Lobato (Esp) Fundación-Orbea, at 2s

3. Dylan Teuns (Bel) Bahrain-McLaren

4. Clément Venturini (Fra) Ag2r La Mondiale, at 4s

5. Jack Haig (Aus) Mitchelton-Scott

6. Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Astana

7. Edward Planckaert (Bel) Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise

8. Ion Izagirre (Esp) Astana

9. Andrea Pasqualon (Ita) Circus-Wanty Gobert

10. Marc Soler (Esp) Movistar, all at same time

General classification after stage two

1. Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Astana, in 9-49-01

2. Mikel Landa (Esp) Bahrain-McLaren, at 6s

3. Dylan Teuns (Bel) Bahrain-McLaren, at 23s

4. Jack Haig (Aus) Mitchelton-Scott, at 27s

5. Ion Izagirre (Esp) Astana, at 30s

6. Pello Bilbao (Esp) Bahrain-McLaren, at same time

7. Chris Harper (Aus) Jumbo-Visma, at 1-00

8. Harm Vanhoucke (Bel) Lotto-Soudal, at 1-09

9. Rubén Fernández (Esp) Fundación-Orbea, at 1-13

10. David de la Cruz (Esp) UAE Team Emirates, at 1-14

Jakob Fuglsang powered clear of Mikel Landa to take victory on his first race day of the year on stage one of the Ruta del Sol 2020.

Fuglsang (Astana) and Landa proved themselves the strongest of the bunch on the brutal final climb in Andalusia, delivering a fatal blow on the ascent and setting themselves up for a two-up battle for the stage on the short and sharp rise to the line.

As the pair hit the steep, narrow and cobbled 600 metre climb to the finish, Fuglsang led his rival up to the 100m mark, launching his attack and easily pulling clear of Landa (Bahrain-McLaren) as the road ramped up.

Reigning Ruta del Sol champion Fuglsang takes the first leader's jersey of the race with his dominant performance.

How it happened

Early-season racing continued in Spain’s southern Andalusia region with a daunting 173.8km run from Alhaurin de la Torre on the coast to Grazalema, in the foothills of the Sierra del Pina mountain range.

The stage featured five categorised climbs, all category three apart from the big first category climb, which ramped up in the final 20km.

After ranked climbs at kilometres 49, 69, 96 and 134, the peloton faced the fall 12km-wall to Puerto de las Palomas, which averaged around 6.5 per cent gradient.

But the summit of the climb was not the final, as the peloton then dropped down before a short uphill sprint for the line.

A group of 11 riders escaped the peloton in the early stages, including Alexis Gougeard (Ag2r La Mondiale) and Kobe Goossens (Lotto-Soudal), and were allowed around a two-minute gap.

Attacks in the breakaway kicked off inside 50km, but the front group were reeled in at the foot of the Palomas climb, as Maurits Lammertink (Circus-Wanty Gobert) from the breakaway attacked on the slopes and held a slight advantage.

As Lammertink was caught on the climb, his team-mate Loic Vliegen fired his own move and managed to hold a 20-second advantage for a considerable amount of the climb.

The Belgian was reeled in with around 10km left to race as the peloton began to disappear under the strain.

First attacks from the favourites followed shortly after, with Mikel Landa and reigning champion Jakob Fuglsang hitting the front and getting their own gap.

Hitting the final few turns of the climb, Landa and Fuglsang had a 30-second advantage as they floated up the climb, with just 10 riders left to chase behind, and has they hit the descent they’d built the gap up to 53 seconds.

The lead pair hit the final cobbled climb with around 600m to the line well clear of their rivals, setting up the tense two-up dash for the line.

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Fuglsang led Landa along the narrow and rough street, the pair matching pedal strokes before Fuglsang upped the wattage and pulled clear with 100m to race.

Landa couldn’t respond, as Fuglsang crossed the line to take the stage and the leader’s jersey.

Ruta del Sol 2020, stage one  run from Alhaurin de la Torre  to Grazalema (173.8km)

1. Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Astana, in 4-11-08

2. Mikel Landa (Esp) Bahrain-McLaren, at 6s

3. Dylan Teuns (Bel) Bahrain-McLaren, at 25s

4. Jack Haig (Aus) Mitchelton-Scott, at 27s

5. Pello Bilbao (Esp) Bahrain-McLaren, at same time

6. Ion Izagirre (Esp) Astana, at 30s

7. Chris Harper (Aus) Jumbo-Visma, at 54s

8. David de la Cruz (Esp) UAE Team Emirates, at 1-03

9. Harm Vanhoucke (Bel) Lotto-Soudal, at same time

10. Rubén Fernández (Esp) Fundación-Orbea, at 1-07

General classification after stage one

1. Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Astana, in 4-11-08

2. Mikel Landa (Esp) Bahrain-McLaren, at 6s

3. Dylan Teuns (Bel) Bahrain-McLaren, at 25s

4. Jack Haig (Aus) Mitchelton-Scott, at 27s

5. Pello Bilbao (Esp) Bahrain-McLaren, at same time

6. Ion Izagirre (Esp) Astana, at 30s

7. Chris Harper (Aus) Jumbo-Visma, at 54s

8. David de la Cruz (Esp) UAE Team Emirates, at 1-03

9. Harm Vanhoucke (Bel) Lotto-Soudal, at same time

10. Rubén Fernández (Esp) Fundación-Orbea, at 1-07

The 2020 Ruta del Sol will be live on TV for all five stages, with Eurosport providing live coverage of the early season Spanish stage race, with highlights on each evening.

Each stage of the Ruta del Sol will finish at around 16:45 local time (15:45 UK time) with coverage starting around an hour or an hour and a half before, depending on the stage. Extended coverage will also be shown on the Eurosport Player.

The Ruta del Sol start list for 2020 is headlined by defending champion Jakob Fuglsang (Astana), who will face competition from the likes of Mikel Landa (Bahrain-McLaren) and Movistar's Marc Soler and Enric Mas, if he is to retain the overall title.

The 2020 edition of the race, which is also known as the Vuelta a

cia, covers five stages, includes a number of category one climbs throughout the week to test the climbers’ early-season legs, and culminates in an individual time trial on the final day.

>>> Ruta del Sol 2020 start list

All listings are provisional and subject to change by the broadcaster. Timings are GMT.

Stage One – Wednesday, February 19

14:00-15:45, Live, Eurosport 2

Highlights: 20:00 - 21:00

Stage Two – Thursday, February 20

15:00-15:45, Live, Eurosport 2

Highlights: 20:00 - 21:00

Stage Three – Friday, February 21

14:00-15.45 Live, Eurosport 2

Highlights: 20:00 - 21:00

Stage Four – Saturday, February 22

15:00-15:45, Live, Eurosport 2

Highlights: 20:00 - 21:00

Stage Five – Sunday, February 23

13:00-15:00, Live, Eurosport Player

Highlights: 20:00 - 21:00

The list of riders and teams taking part in the 2020 Ruta del Sol from February 19-23 is slowly being confirmed, with a number of big names beginning their seasons in Spain.

Defending champion Jakob Fuglsang (Astana) will open his season at the race, as will Mikel Landa for his new team Bahrain-McLaren. Rod Ellingworth's team will be taking a strong line-up, including Dylan Teuns, Sonny Colbrelli, and Matej Mohorič.

British Tour Down Under stage winner Matt Holmes will be racing for Lotto-Soudal, while Ag2r La Mondiale's Oliver Naesen will also take the start line.

Movistar are expected to field both Marc Soler and Enric Mas, while Mikel Nieve and Jack Haig could ride for Mitchelton-Scott.

>>> Ruta del Sol 2020 live TV guide

The 2020 edition of the race, which is also known as the Vuelta a Andalucia, covers five stages, includes a number of category one climbs throughout the week to test the climbers' early-season legs, and culminates in an individual time trial on the final day.

Astana (confirmed)

FUGLSANG Jakob (Den)

IZAGIRRE Ion (Esp)

VLASOV Aleksandr (Rus)

HOULE Hugo (Can)

GRUZDEV Dmitriy (Kaz)

PRONSKIY Vadim (Kaz)

FOMINYKH Daniil (Kaz)

Lotto-Soudal (confirmed)

ARMÉE Sander (Bel)

HOLMES Matthew (GBr)

MARCZYŃSKI Tomasz (Pol)

VANHOUCKE Harm (Bel)

GOOSSENS Kobe (Bel)

VAN GOETHEM Brian (Ned)

OLDANI Stefano (Ita)

Bahrain-McLaren (confirmed)

LANDA Mikel (Esp)

TEUNS Dylan (Bel)

MOHORIČ Matej (Slo)

CARUSO Damiano (Ita)

COLBRELLI Sonny (Ita)

BILBAO Pello (Esp)

GARCÍA CORTINA Iván (Esp)

Ag2r La Mondiale (confirmed)

NAESEN Oliver (Bel)

VANDENBERGH Stijn (Bel)

LATOUR Pierre (Fra)

DILLIER Silvan (Sui)

VENTURINI Clément (Fra)

NAESEN Lawrence (Bel)

GOUGEARD Alexis (Fra)

UAE Team Emirates (confirmed)

CONTI Valerio (Ita)

MCNULTY Brandon (USA)

DE LA CRUZ David (Esp)

MIRZA Yousif (UAE)

RAVASI Edward (Ita)

LAENGEN Vegard Stake (Nor)

COVI Alessandro (Ita)

Jumbo-Visma

TOLHOEK Antwan (Ned)

HOFSTEDE Lennard (Ned)

MARTENS Paul (Ger)

LINDEMAN Bert-Jan (Ned)

VAN DER HOORN Taco (Ned)

HARPER Chris (Aus)

LEEZER Tom (Ned)

Mitchelton-Scott

NIEVE Mikel (Esp)

HAIG Jack (Aus)

ZIETS Andrey (Kaz)

AFFINI Edoardo (Ita)

EDMONDSON Alex (Aus)

BOOKWALTER Brent (USA)

KONYCHEV Alexander (Ita)

Movistar

SOLER Marc (Esp)

MAS Enric (Esp)

PRADES Eduard (Esp)

ROELANDTS Jurgen (Bel)

MORA Sebastián (Esp)

ARCAS Jorge (Esp)

OLIVEIRA Nelson (Por)

PEDRERO Antonio (Esp)

Total Direct Energie

TERPSTRA Niki (Fra)

GAUDIN Damien (Fra)

PETIT Adrien (Fra)

SICARD Romain (Fra)

COUSIN Jérôme (Fra)

SIMON Julien (Fra)

VAN GESTEL Dries (Bel)

Burgos-BH

SMIT Willie (RSA)

GUERRERO Pablo (Esp)

RUBIO Diego (Esp)

CUBERO Jorge (Esp)

EZQUERRA Jesús (Esp)

CABEDO Óscar (Esp)

Gazprom - RusVelo

STRAKHOV Dmitry (Rus)

KUZNETSOV Viacheslav (Rus)

VELASCO Simone (Ita)

SCARONI Cristian (Ita)

Sport Vlaanderen - Baloise

PLANCKAERT Edward (Bel)

SPRENGERS Thomas (Bel)

CAPIOT Amaury (Bel)

DELTOMBE Kevin (Bel)

VAN POUCKE Aaron (Bel)

VERWILST Aaron (Bel)

WARLOP Jordi (Bel)

Circus - Wanty Gobert

BAKELANTS Jan (Bel)

VLEIGEN Loic (Bel)

PASQUALON Andrea (Ita)

OFFREDO Yoann (Fra)

LAMMERTINK Maurits (Ned)

DE PLUS Jasper (Bel)

BELLICAUS Jeremy (Fra)

Caja Rural-Seguros RGA

CAUDROS Alvaro (Esp)

MARTIN Sergio (Esp)

SERRANO Gonzalo (Esp)

AULAR Orluis (Ven)

URBANO Carmelo (Esp)

NICOLAU Joel (Esp)

CEPEDA Jefferson (Ecu)

B&B Hotels - Vital Concept p/b KTM

COQUARD Bryan (Fra)

DEBUSSCHERE Jens (Bel)

SCHÖNBERGER Sebastian (Aut)

MORICE Julien (Fra)

BOECKMANS Kris (Bel)

REZA Kevin (Fra)

COQUARD Bryan (Fra)

Fundación-Orbea

FERNÁNDEZ Ruben (Esp)

ITURRIA Mikel (Esp)

BIZKARRA Mikel (Esp)

LOBATO Juan José (Esp)

Matteo Trentin (Mitchelton-Scott) won the fifth and final stage of the Ruta del Sol as Jakob Fugslang topped the general classification, his first stage race triumph in 20 months.

Trentin was comfortably the quickest in the uphill sprint in Alhaurín de la Torre, springing clear inside the final few hundred metres and crossing the line with enough of a margin to sit up and celebrate.

It is the Australian team's eleventh win of the 2019 season, and Trentin's second of the week, following his success on stage two.

The win for Astana's Danish rider Fugslang came courtesy of a second-placed finish on stages one and three and finishing in the chasing group on stage four when Simon Yates won via a memorable attack and previous race leader Tim Wellens was unable to keep pace. It's Fugslang's first GC success since the Critérium du Dauphiné in 2017.

How it happened

The day's race began in the starting town of Otura but it took more than 10km for a breakaway to form, which notably included the previous day's stage winner Yates.

The group swelled to nine from five, but after some chasing from the peloton, the escapees finally settled on a four-man contingent of Yates, Tomasz Marczynski (Lotto-Soudal), Antwan  Tolhoek (Jumbo-Visma), and Oscar Riesebeek (Roompot-Charles).

Tolhoek was seemingly placed in the break to assist teammate Steven Kruijswijk later on in the race should required, given that he was just 11 seconds off race leader Fugslang. Astana, however, responded by bringing the break back from four minutes to less than a minute's advantage with 44km remaining.

As the race reached the final climb, a short and sharp ramp up Alto del Valle de la Vida, Yates attacked his breakaway companions, springing clear immediately and stretching a lead of around 40 seconds to the peloton.

It briefly sparked hope among Mitchelton-Scott that Yates could win via a long distance attack for the second successive day, but he was reeled in. His capture, in the presence of Guillaume Martin (Wanty-Groupe Gobert) and Fausto Masnada (Androni Giocattoli-Sidermec), ignited the latter to go solo himself on the descent with 27km to go.

Despite Masnanda's efforts, he too was sucked back into an Astana-led bunch 10km later, setting up a sprint finish.

But the run-in, in spite of being flat, was far from straight-forward. Strong crosswinds stemmed the speed and resulted in the peloton shredding several riders. Petr Rikunov (Gaxprom-RusVelo) moved clear of the peloton temporarily but inside five kilometres until the finish the reduced bunch was one long line.

The inclination of the finishing straight lent itself to Trentin being touted as the favourite, and he was afforded a superb leadout from Esteban Chaves and Edoardo Affini.

When the road cranked up in gradient, European champion Trentin pushed on, darting to the left of the road. No one behind was able to follow the Italian's speed, and it was a case of determining the final podium spots, taken by Enrique Sanz (Euskadi Basque Country - Murias) in second and Carlos Barbero (Movistar) in third.

Results

Ruta del Sol 2019, stage five Otura to Alhaurín de la Torre (163.9km)

1. Matteo Trentin (Ita) Mitchelton-Scott, in 3-58-19

2. Enrique Sanz (Esp) Euskadi Basque Country - Murias

3. Carlos Barbero (Esp) Movistar

4. Tosh van der Sande (Bel) Lotto-Soudal

5. Colin Joyce (USA) Rally UHC Cycling

6. Matej Mohorič (Svn) Bahrain-Merida

7. Juan José Lobato (Esp) Nippo Vini Fantini Faizanè

8. Lars Boom (Ned) Roompot-Charles)

9. Eduard Prades (Esp) Movistar

10. Steven Kruijswijk (Ned) Jumbo-Visma, all at same time

General classification after stage five

1. Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Astana, at 17-42-00

2. Ion Izagirre (Esp) Astana, at 7secs

3. Steven Kruijswik (Ned) Jumbo-Visma, at 11secs

4. Pello Bilbao (Esp) Astana, at 21secs

5. Adam Yates (GBr) Mitchelton-Scott, at 57secs

6. Jack Haig (Aus) Mitchelton-Scott, at 1-08

7. Sergio Higuita (Col) Fundacion-Euskadi, at 1-12

8. Aleksandr Vlasov (Rus) Gazprom-RusVelo, at 1-43

9. Tim Wellens (Bel) Lotto-Soudal, at 2-53

10. Dylan Teuns (Bel) Bahrain-Merida, at 3-41

Tim Wellens (Lotto-Soudal) extended his overall lead in the 2019 Ruta del Sol after winning the stage three time trial in Andalucia.

The Belgian rider entered the stage with three riders, Astana's Jakob Fuglsang and Ion Izagirre, and Jack Haig (Mitchelton-Scott) breathing down his neck at five seconds back, but managed to trump them all with the time trial win, beating next best finisher Fuglsang by two seconds.

Defending champion Wellens only leads by seven seconds over the Dane though, and will face a tough task in holding onto the lead in the mountains of stage four against Astana, who also have Pello Bilbao in the top-10 overall.

How it happened

The riders face a short but testing course in the stage three time trial of the 2019 Ruta del Sol, with just 16.2km on the cards but featuring a tough climb to the finish.

Of the early riders out on the course, Britain's Simon Yates set the benchmark time of 22-34, which would remain unbeaten for some time.

The next rider to beat Yates' time would in fact be his twin brother Adam, who raced through the finish seven seconds quicker.

Again, it would be a benchmark that would hold for some time as riders counted down towards the overall favourites.

Steven Kruijswijk (Jumbo-Visma) was the first of the overall hopefuls to look in contention for the stage win, coming home six seconds quicker than Adam Yates.

That was short-lived however, with Ion Izagirre crossing the line and taking the lead by just a 100th of a second. Jack Haig was unable to keep the pace with the other riders in the top three positions, finishing seven seconds down on Izagirre and dropping to fifth overall.

With just the top-two now out on the course, it looked as though Fuglsang may have the advantage as he blasted to the finish seven seconds up on his team-mate Izagirre.

However Wellens was showing no signs of relenting to the pressure on his overall lead, and powered up the final climb to log a time of 22-25, two seconds quicker than Fuglsang, extending his overall lead to seven seconds with two stages remaining.

The Ruta del Sol continues on Saturday with a tough mountain stage from Armilla to Granada, covering just 119.9km.

Results

Ruta del Sol 2019, stage three: Mancha Real to La Guardia de Jaén (16.2k, ITT)

1. Tim Wellens (Bel) Lotto-Soudal, in 22-25

2. Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Astana, at 2 seconds

3. Ion Izagirre (Esp) Astana, at 9s

4. Steven Kruijswijk (Ned) Jumbo-Visma, at same time

5. Adam Yates (GBr) Mitchelton-Scott, at 15s

6. Jack Haig (Aus) Mitchelton-Scott, at 16s

7. Pello Bilbao (Esp) Astana, at 19s

8. Simon Yates (GBr) Mitchelton-Scott, at 22s

9. Matej Mohorič (Slo) Bahrain-Merida, at 26s

10. Aleksandr Vlasov (Rus) Gazprom-Rusvelo, at 47s

General classification after stage three

1. Tim Wellens (Bel) Lotto-Soudal, in 10-42-05

2. Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Astana, at 7 seconds

3. Ion Izagirre (Esp) Astana, at 14ss

4. Steven Kruijswijk (Ned) Jumbo-Visma, at 18s

5. Jack Haig (Aus) Mitchelton-Scott, at 21s

6. Pello Bilbao (Esp) Astana, at 28s

7. Matej Mohorič (Slo) Bahrain-Merida, at 39s

8. Aleksandr Vlasov (Rus) Gazprom-Rusvelo, at 56s

9. Adam Yates (GBr) Mitchelton-Scott, at 1-04

10. Óscar Rodríguez (Esp) Euskadi Basque Country-Murias, at 1-16

Tim Wellens opened his Ruta del Sol title defence with an emphatic victory on the opening stage.

The Lotto-Soudal rider attacked on the brutal cobbled slopes of the final climb and was too powerful for his nearest rivals, Jakob Fuglsang and Ion Izagirre (Astana).

Wellens, 27, repeated his 2018 stage victory at Alcalá de los Gazules – a win that secured his overall victory at the stage race in southern Spain last year.

How it happened

The opening stage of the 2019 edition was a relentlessly undulating course over 170km from Sanlúcar de Barramed to Acalá de los Gazules, 130km south of Seville.

But with just a single category three climb on the road, the peloton focussed their attention on the final 1km ramp to the line.

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A breakaway of seven riders from the smaller teams led for much of the day, made up of Unai Cuadrado (Fundación Euskadi), Sergio Samitier (Euskadi Basque Country-Murias), Alessandro Pessot (Bardiani-CSF), Corentin Ermenault (Vital Concept-B&B Hotels), Álvaro Cuadros (Caja Rural-Seguros RSA), Michael Van Staeyen (Roompot-Charles) and Jetse Bol (Burgos-BH).

Bol rode away from his breakaway companions 45km from the line, but after 10km solo the Dutchman was reabsorbed back into the break as the peloton allowed them a 44-second advantage.

The escapees were quickly swept up with just over 20km to go as the peloton ramped up the pace – Mitchelton-Scott and Astana took to the front to dictate the rhythm.

Astana then took the control of the race from 15km, with Bahrain-Merida also putting numbers at the front as teams battled for safe positioning ahead of the final climb.

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The fast pace caused havoc in the final 10km, as a brief crosswind section caused minor splits and Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) was dropped from the peloton.

But the front of the race regrouped and the peloton slowed 6km from the line, prompting an attack from Dries Van Gestel (Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise) who was followed by Matteo Montaguti (Androni Giocattoli-Sidermec).

The duo pulled out a 20-second gap in the first 1.5km of their attack, the narrow winding roads playing to their advantage as the chase quickly ramped up behind.

Van Gestel and Montaguti were caught just over 2km from the line and the pace rocketed in anticipation of the approaching ramp.

Tim Wellens (Lotto-Soudal) hit the front as the peloton turned right onto the climb, as the brutal gradients rapidly thinned out the field.

Steven Kruijswijk was also present at the head of the race, as was Jack Haig (Mitchelton-Scott), and Jakub Fuglsang (Astana) took the lead with 600m to ride.

Wellens launched a final attack on the savage cobbled section in the final 300m and rapidly pulled out an insurmountable lead, raising both hands as he crossed the line first.

Haig put in a valiant effort to follow Wellens but couldn’t match his power, and faded before the line as Fuglsang and Izagirre passed him to take second and third respectively.

Wellens takes the leader's jersey heading into stage two, 216.5km from Sevilla to Torredonjimeno.

Results

Ruta del Sol 2019 stage one: Sanlúca de Barramed to Alcalá de los Gazules (170.5km)

1. Tim Wellens (Bel) Lotto-Soudal, in 4-04-12

2. Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Astana, at 5 seconds

3. Ion Izagirre (Esp) Astana

4. Jack Haig (Aus) Mitchelton-Scott, all at same time

5. Steven Kruijswijk (Ned) Jumbo-Visma, at 9s

6. Pello Bilbao (Esp) Astana

7. Marco Canola (Ita) Nippo-Vini Fantini Faizane

8. Aleksandr Vlasov (Rus) Gazprom-Rusvelo

9. Antwan Tolhoek (Ned) Jumbo-Visma, all at same time

10. Guillaume Martin (Fra) Wanty-Group Gobert), at 13s

General classification after stage one

1. Tim Wellens (Bel) Lotto-Soudal, in 4-04-12

2. Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Astana, at 5 seconds

3. Ion Izagirre (Esp) Astana

4. Jack Haig (Aus) Mitchelton-Scott, all at same time

5. Steven Kruijswijk (Ned) Jumbo-Visma, at 9s

6. Pello Bilbao (Esp) Astana

7. Marco Canola (Ita) Nippo-Vini Fantini Faizane

8. Aleksandr Vlasov (Rus) Gazprom-Rusvelo

9. Antwan Tolhoek (Ned) Jumbo-Visma, all at same time

10. Guillaume Martin (Fra) Wanty-Group Gobert), at 13s

Tim Wellens (Lotto-Soudal) won stage four of the Ruta del Sol, Vuelta Ciclista a Andalucía in Spain on Saturday to take the overall race lead.

Wellens joined Mikel Landa (Movistar) on the vicious rough, cobbled finishing climb to Alcalá de los Gazules to open a gap on their rivals. Ultimately, Landa couldn't match Wellens' experience on the cobbles in the finale of the punchy climb, and had to settle for second.

Jakob Fuglsang (Astana) came in for third place. Wout Poels (Team Sky) finished in fourth spot, but it was not enough to stop Wellens from relieving him of the overall race lead with just the final time trial remaining. Poels slips to third place overall as Landa rises to second behind Wellens.

>>> Ruta del Sol 2018: Latest news, reports and race info

How it happened

A large 13-rider escape group went clear after a fast-paced opening hour after the start in Sevilla, consisting of Imanol Erviti (Movistar), James Shaw (Lotto-Soudal), Sep Vanmarcke (EF Education First-Drapac), Julien Duval (Ag2r), Guillaume Martin (Wanty-Groupe Gobert), Marco Minnaard (Wanty-Groupe Gobert), Thomas Boudat (Direct Energie), Delio Fernández (Delko Marseille Provence KTM), Lukasz Owsian (CCC Sprandi Polkowice), Coen Vermeltfoort (Roompot Nederlandse Loterij), Huub Duijn (Vérandas Willems-Crelan), Jesus Ezquerra (Burgos-BH) and Kyle Murphy (Rally Cycling).

The sizeable 1200-metre climb of Puerto de las Palomas followed by the Puerto del Boya punctuated the stage mid-way, and served to break up the racing.

The escape group fractured with the two Wanty riders, Martin and Minnaard, attacking off the front near the foot of the first ascent.

https://youtu.be/z553Crnrjw4

They were later joined by Vanmarcke, and Movistar duo Hector Carretero and Andrey Amador, who had attacked from the peloton after their team had set a blistering pace.

Amador and Vanmarcke then forged ahead on the long descent, opening up a gap of a minute over Carretero and two and a half minutes over the chasing bunch.

Off the descent and into the final 50km a chase was set up, with Vanmarcke and Amador riding a two-up time trial, attempting to keep away from the clutches of the peloton led by Team Sky and Astana.

With 20km to go, the gap had been reduced to a minute but the duo were working well together and managed to hold the gap for the following 10km.

However, inside the final 5km the peloton stepped up the pace, with Amador and Vanmarcke only left with a handful of seconds over the chasers.

Chris Froome was one of several riders to catch a puncture on the rough roads in the final 5km, and was forced to chase back on through the team cars.

Right before the start of the final climb, Vanmarcke and Amador were caught.

Landa was then one of the first riders to move to the front, and was joined by Wellens. The two looked to be in a class of their own on the climb as others struggled on the constantly-changing surface and series of tight switchbacks.

Into the final 500 metres, Wellens had the measure of Landa and came across the line with time to spare for a celebration.

The 2018 Ruta del Sol concludes on Sunday with the final stage, a decisive individual time trial around Barbate. The flat 14.2-kilometre course should suit the pure time triallists and power riders, and could see some significant alterations in the general classification.

Froome has said that he will 'empty the tank' during the time trial, and figures as one of the favourites for the stage win.

Results

Ruta del Sol 2018, stage four: Sevilla to Alcalá de los Gazules, 191.2km

1. Tim Wellens (Bel) Lotto-Soudal, in 4-36-23

2. Mikel Landa (Esp) Movistar, at 5 secs

3. Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Astana, at 12 secs

4. Wout Poels (Ned) Team Sky, at 13 secs

5. Floris De Tier (Bel) LottoNL-Jumbo, at same time

6. Marc Soler (Esp) Movistar, at 17 secs

7. Steven Kruijswijk (Ned) LottoNL-Jumbo, at 20 secs

8. Luis Leon Sanchez (Esp) Astana, at same time

9. Simon Clarke (Aus) EF Education First-Drapac, at 21 secs

10. Andrea Pasqualon (Ita) Wanty Groupe Gobert, at 24 secs

General classification after stage four

1. Tim Wellens (Bel) Lotto-Soudal, in 17-24-25

2. Mikel Landa (Esp) Movistar, at 7 secs

3. Wout Poels (Ned) Team Sky, at 11 secs

4. Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Astana, at 14 secs

5. Luis Leon Sanchez (Esp) Astana, at 20 secs

6. Marc Soler (Esp) Movistar, at 32 secs

7. Steven Kruijswijk (Ned) LottoNL-Jumbo, at 58 secs

8. Simon Clarke (Aus) EF Education First-Drapac, at 1-05

9. Mikel Bizkarra (Esp) Euskadi Basque Country, at 1-14

10. Sergio Pardilla (Esp) Caja Rural, at 1-24

Chris Froome believes victory is probably out of his reach as the Ruta del Sol enters its last two stages, but has vowed to “empty the tank” in the last day time trial as he continues his build-up to a potential Giro d’Italia and Tour de France double.

At this early stage of the season, Froome believes he’s not quite got the edge on his opponents in Andalucia, but is content with his progress, and is happy to help teammate and current race leader Wout Poels on to the top step of the podium in Barbate on Sunday.

“I’m not feeling super-fresh at the moment,” admitted Froome after rolling in with the pack at the end of the relatively flat 166km from Mancha Real to Herrera.

“To win I think would be difficult. The gap is only 30 seconds and that’s not easy with such a short uphill finish on stage four (Saturday’s prickly 194km jaunt from Seville to Alcala De Los Gazules) - and a short TT.

"I don’t see it happening with the strong field that’s here, but it’s very much in Wout’s sights so we’ll be working towards that. Wout is in great shape so we’ll do everything we can around him.”

>>> Chris Froome: ‘I called it pretty early, I’m still not at my best’

But Froome’s competitive spirit won’t quite release him from wondering if he might have an outside chance.

“I’m half a minute off the lead at the moment,” he notes, “so I’ll empty the tank on the last time trial. Again it’s another little test to see where I’m at – to see what work I still need to do on the TT bike.”

https://youtu.be/JYk2AZKQF6g

Poels, meanwhile, was wearing the same trademark big smile at the end of the stage into Herrera as he was at the beginning, stating that Team Sky has never been a happier place, as the British team enjoys the lead in both the Ruta del Sol and the Volta ao Algarve, with Thomas sporting that race’s yellow jersey.

“It feels a very happy place at the moment,” said Poels of Team Sky.

“I’m very pleased with my form at this stage of the season. We don’t let what is being talked about with Chris affect us. We are a happy group and I think it is showing.”

Sacha Modolo (EF Education First-Drapac) made amends for his agonising second place on the opening stage of the Ruta del Sol by winning stage three from a bunch sprint in Herrera.

Modolo had missed out on victory on stage one after celebrating too early and getting rolled on the line by Thomas Boudat (Direct Energie) but was making no such mistakes on stage three.

The Italian was kept to the front of affairs through the last kilometre, helping him to stay ahead of a crash through the final corner, and then sprinted clear of his rivals and even putting in a bike throw to take his first victory of the season.

Meanwhile race leader Wout Poels (Team Sky) finished safely in the main pack to retain the leader's red jersey ahead of Luis Leon Sanchez (Astana) and Tim Wellens (Lotto-Soudal).

How it happened

A flat stage three saw the break take 23km to form, with Marco Minnaard (Wanty-Groupe Gobert), Alvaro Cuadros (Caja Rural-RGA Seguros), Hector Saez (Euskadi-Murias), and Oscar Cabedo (Burgos-BH) making the move and opening a maximum lead of less than three minutes.

Team Sky, working for Wout Poels, took responsibility for limiting the quartet's lead, before the sprinters' teams started to lend a hand in the final 50km and the gap began to fall.

As the gap came below a minute with 30km remaining, Cuadros and Saez forged on alone as they left their breakaway companions. However by 13km to go the duo's lead was down to just 20 seconds, and the catch was made shortly after.

With eight kilometres remaining it was Ag2r La Mondiale who took up the pace-setting as they looked to set up Clément Venturini, but it was down to Astana to make an impact as they strung the peloton out into a long line to keep their GC men out of trouble with four kilometres to go.

However things began to get a bit messy on the final run towards the line, with an Ag2r La Mondiale rider crashing on the final corner to see a group of 12 riders given a slight gap over the rest of the peloton.

Sacha Modolo was safely sat just a couple of wheels back, and held off the rest of the fastmen to win by a bike length and take his first victory of the season.

The 2018 Ruta del Sol continues on Saturday with a 194.7km stage from Sevilla to Alcalá de los Gazules, featuring a short, punchy uphill finish.

Results

Ruta del Sol 2018, stage three: Mancha Real to Herrera, 166.1km

1. Sacha Modolo (Ita) EF Education First-Drapac, in 3-48-17

2. Carlos Barbero (Esp) Movistar

3. Nelson Andres Soto Martinez (Col) Caja Rural-Seguros RGA

4. Oscar Gatto (Ita) Astana

5. Moreno Hofland (Ned) Lotto Soudal

6. Jon Aberasturi Izaga (Esp) Euskadi-Murias

7. Eduard Michael Grosu (Rom) Nippo-Vini Fantini

8. Coen Vermeltfoort (Ned) Roompot-Nederlandse Loterij

9. Andrea Pasqualon (Ita) Wanty-Groupe Gobert

10. Colin Joyce (USA) Rally Cycling, all at same time

General classification after stage three

1. Wout Poels (Ned) Team Sky,

2. Luis León Sanchez (Esp) Astana, at 2 secs

3. Tim Wellens (Bel) Lotto Soudal, at same time

4. Mikel Landa (Esp) Movistar, at 4 secs

5. Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Astana, at same time

6. Marc Soler (Esp) Movistar, at 17 secs

7. Chris Froome (GBr) Team Sky, at 27 secs

8. Mikel Bizkarra (Esp) Euskadi-Murias, at 34 secs

9. Amaro Antunes (Por) CCC Sprandi Polkowice, at 38 secs

10. Jelle Vanendert (Bel) Lotto Soudal, at same time

Wout Poels (Team Sky) won the second stage of the Ruta del Sol, taking victory on the race's one major summit finish to move into the race lead.

Poels was part of an elite group which formed on the three kilometre final climb of the Alto de Allanadas, taking two attempts to finally get the stage win.

His first attack with a kilometre to go saw him chase down another late move from Tim Wellens (Lotto-Soudal), before he accelerated again with 300m to go to take the victory ahead of Luis Leon Sanchez (Astana) and Wellens.

Meanwhile Chris Froome (Team Sky), riding his first race of the season, crossed the line in seventh place, 27 seconds down on his team-mate after spending much of the final climb yo-yoing off the back off the front group.

How it happened

The peloton enjoyed perfect weather as they rolled out from Otura at the start of the second stage of the Ruta del Sol, with nine riders getting in the breakaway and opening up a large gap that approached eight minutes at one point.

In the move were Alvaro Cuadros (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA), Przemyslaw Kasperkiewicz (Delko Marselle Provence KTM), Alexis Gougeard (Ag2r La Mondiale), Pascal Eenkhoorn (LottoNL-Jumbo), Diego Rubio (Burgos-BH), Aaron Verwilst (Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise), Sho Hatsuyama (Nippo-Vini Fantini), Jeroen Meijers (Roompot-Nederlandse Loterij) and Enrique Sanz (Euskadi-Murias).

The gap remained steady for much of the day as Astana, Team Sky, and Movistar shared the workload at the front of the peloton, before the Kazakh team steadily raised the pace to bring the gap below three minutes for the first time with 25km remaining.

By that time the rolling terrain had seen the break reduced to just three riders, with only Rubio, Gougeard, and Eenkhoorn remaining out front.

However although Astana's pace wasn't bringing the gap down all that quickly, with the trio out front still enjoying a lead of more than two minutes with nine kilometres remaining, it was enough to see overnight leader Thomas Boudat (Direct Energie) dropped as the road began to swing upwards.

The rising roads were also taking their toll on the break, with Eenkhoorn the first to be dropped, before Rubio went on alone, going into the final 4.5km with a one minute advantage over the bunch.

The climb started in earnest with three kilometres remaining and immediately saw a move from Jakob Fuglsang (Astana), forcing Team Sky to take up the chase in the peloton and keep the Danish climber hanging just a few metres off the front.

With Fuglsang providing a tempting carrot, Mikel Landa (Movistar) was the next to attack with Tim Wellens, before Wout Poels moved across.

Those accelerations were enough to see Rubio caught with 1.8km to go, before the pace slackened to allow a few more riders to get back into contention, including Chris Froome, before Wellens launched an attack of his own.

The Belgian may not have had the smoothest style, but it was effective as Jakob Fuglsang led Astana team-mate Luis Leon Sanchez at the head of the chase, keeping Wellens locked at 10 seconds up the mountain.

With the gap not coming down, Wout Poels launched his big attack, quickly reeling in Wellens but bringing Sanchez with him, before Landa, Fuglsang, and Marc Soler worked their way back, before Fuglsang went once again.

However Poels still had more to give, and launched one more move ahead of the final corner, this time opening a sizeable gap on the rest of the GC contenders and holding off Sanchez to take the win.

The Ruta del Sol continues on Friday with a 166.1km stage from Mancha Real to Herrera that looks destined to finish with a bunch sprint.

Results

Ruta del Sol 2018, stage two: Otura to La Guardia de Jaén (Alto de Allanadas), 140km

1. Wout Poels (Ned) Team Sky, in 3-38-04

2. Luis León Sanchez (Esp) Astana, at 2 secs

3. Tim Wellens (Bel) Lotto Soudal, at same time

4. Mikel Landa (Esp) Movistar, at 4 secs

5. Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Astana, at same time

6. Marc Soler (Esp) Movistar, at 17 secs

7. Chris Froome (GBr) Team Sky, at 27 secs

8. Mikel Bizkarra (Esp) Euskadi-Murias, at 34 secs

9. Amaro Antunes (Por) CCC Sprandi Polkowice, at 38 secs

10. Jelle Vanendert (Bel) Lotto Soudal, at same time

General classification after stage two

1. Wout Poels (Ned) Team Sky, in 3-38-04

2. Luis León Sanchez (Esp) Astana, at 2 secs

3. Tim Wellens (Bel) Lotto Soudal, at same time

4. Mikel Landa (Esp) Movistar, at 4 secs

5. Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Astana, at same time

6. Marc Soler (Esp) Movistar, at 17 secs

7. Chris Froome (GBr) Team Sky, at 27 secs

8. Mikel Bizkarra (Esp) Euskadi-Murias, at 34 secs

9. Amaro Antunes (Por) CCC Sprandi Polkowice, at 38 secs

10. Jelle Vanendert (Bel) Lotto Soudal, at same time

Chris Froome may have said that he was grateful for riders' support as he returned to action at the Ruta del Sol with the investigation into his adverse analytical finding at the Vuelta a España still ongoing, but not all members of the peloton were happy to see Froome back competing.

Speaking ahead of the opening stage of the Ruta del Sol, Tony Martin, who criticised the actions of the UCI after news of Froome's anti-doping investigation broke in December, said that he did not think Froome should be back racing.

>>> Everything you need to know about Chris Froome's salbutamol case

"It’s super bad for cycling," Martin told CyclingPro.net. "I absolutely do not understand why Team Sky came back with Froome when the case remains unclear…it’s a shame."

Martin's view was shared by Philippe Gilbert, who said that Froome should respect his fellow riders and not race while the investigation was ongoing.

"It’s hard to give a view on it,” the Quick-Step Floors rider said on the steps of his team bus. "Personally I think it’s a big mistake [for him to be racing] because there is still doubt hanging over him. And out of respect for the other riders, he should refrain from racing."

However not all riders were so keen to condemn Froome's return to action, with Wanty-Groupe Gobert rider Yoann Offredo saying that the investigation must be allowed to run its course, with Froome being given a chance to explain himself to the authorities.

"I think if he’s broken the rules, the appropriate authorities need to manage the situation," Offredo said. "He can present his defence and he needs to explain himself but it’s up to the authorities to enforce, or not enforce, any sanctions. And if they do, the sanctions need to be consistent with relation to what he has done wrong and other cases in the past."

>>> Thomas Boudat wins stage one of Ruta del Sol in photo finish as Chris Froome returns to action

Froome has denied any wrongdoing in relation to an adverse analytical finding at the 2017 Vuelta a España, and is now working with Team Sky, defence lawyers, and medical experts to prove that the high concentration of salbutamol in his urine after stage 18 of the race was not as a result of exceeding the maximum permitted dosage of the asthma drug.

Froome also spoke ahead of the start of the Ruta del Sol on Wednesday, saying that people will see things from his point of view "when the facts are out", while Team Sky boss Dave Brailsford urged critics to "get a bit of perspective" as he again vouched for Froome's innocence in the case.

Thomas Boudat (Direct-Energie) won the opening stage of the Ruta del Sol as he out-sprinted Sacha Modolo (EF Education First-Drapac) in a tight photo finish in Mijas.

Modolo was put into the perfect position at the front of the bunch with 200m to go, and seemed unstoppable as he sprinted from the front of the field, raising his arms as he crossed the line.

However what Modolo hadn't seen was Boudat accelerating and coming up quickly on the left-hand side of the road, and as Modolo put his hands in the air, the Frenchman thrust his bike towards the line to win by the narrowest of margins and take the overall lead in the process.

>>> Ruta del Sol 2018: Everything you need to know about Chris Froome's return to racing

How it happened

Unsurprisingly there was no shortage of Spanish riders in the break on the opening day of the Ruta del Sol, with three of the five men at the front of the race being home-grown. In the move were Garikoitz Bravo (Euskadi-Murias), Silvan Dillier (Ag2r-La Mondiale), Txomin Juaristi (Fundación Ciclista Euskadi), Romain Sicard (Direct Energie) and Luis Mas (Caja Rural-RGA Seguros) who were given a maximum lead of around five minutes.

That gap remained steady throughout the flat first half of the stage and over the first three of the five categorised climbs that came in quick succession in the second half of the day.

However the second category Alto del Lucero saw the gap to just two-and-a-half minutes as Astana went to the front of the peloton en masse with Danish rider Michael Valgren working particularly hard.

Astana continued to control matters and bring the gap down on the approach to the final climb of the day, with only Dillier remaining out front as they started the descent with 20km remaining.

The Swiss champion put in a brave effort, but his solo move didn't last long as he was caught with 13km to go, before Jon Ander Insausti (Euskadi-Murias) decided on another solo effort.

Insausti's break got his team a few minutes of TV time before he was caught with 7.5km to go with Astana still leading the peloton but being challenged by Movistar and Delko Marseille Provence KTM.

However the pace wasn't high enough to prevent another solo move, this time from Pablo Torres (Burgos-BH) but again this didn't last long, and it was once again all together as the race entered the final three kilometres.

With one kilometre remaining it was EF Education-First Drapac who took control to put Modolo in a perfect position to sprint for victory, while Boudat found himself boxed against the barriers on the left-hand side of the road.

However as Clément Venturini (Ag2r La Mondiale) started his sprint, the door opened for Boudat, allowing him to put him a sharp acceleration and a big bike throw to edge out a celebrating Modolo on the line.

Meanwhile Chris Froome (Team Sky) finished safely in the main bunch on his first race of the 2018 season.

The Ruta del Sol continues on Thursday with a 140km stage from Otura to a summit finish at La Guardia de Jaén.

Results

Ruta del Sol 2017, stage one: Mijas to Granada, 197.6km

1. Thomas Boudat (Fra) Direct Energie, in 5-21-39

2. Sacha Modolo (Ita) EF Education First-Drapac

3. Clement Venturini (Fra) Ag2r La Mondiale

4. Andrea Pasqualon (Ita) Wanty-Groupe Gobert

5. Tosh Van Der Sande (Bel) Lotto Soudal

6. Carlos Barbero (Esp) Movistar

7. Jonas Koch (Ger) CCC Sprandi Polkowice

8. Moreno Hofland (Ned) Lotto Soudal

9. Enrico Battaglin (Ita) LottoNL-Jumbo

10. Jan Tratnik (Slo) CCC Sprandi Polkowice, all at same time

Others
57. Chris Froome (GBr) Team Sky, at same time

General classification after stage one

1. Thomas Boudat (Fra) Direct Energie, in 5-21-39

2. Sacha Modolo (Ita) EF Education First-Drapac

3. Clement Venturini (Fra) Ag2r La Mondiale

4. Andrea Pasqualon (Ita) Wanty-Groupe Gobert

5. Tosh Van Der Sande (Bel) Lotto Soudal

6. Carlos Barbero (Esp) Movistar

7. Jonas Koch (Ger) CCC Sprandi Polkowice

8. Moreno Hofland (Ned) Lotto Soudal

9. Enrico Battaglin (Ita) LottoNL-Jumbo

10. Jan Tratnik (Slo) CCC Sprandi Polkowice, all at same time

Chris Froome has thanked fans for their support and believes that when all the facts about his salbutamol case are made public, more people will see the case from his point of view.

Speaking to journalists assembled outside the Team Sky bus ahead of the opening stage of the Ruta del Sol, Froome said that he recognised that the last couple of months had been a difficult period for his fellow riders and fans of cycling, and that he and Team Sky were working hard to get the case resolved.

>>> Everything you need to know about Chris Froome's salbutamol case

"It's been a difficult period," Froome said. "These are not normal circumstances and obviously this was meant to be a confidential process which has been made public but we're doing our best to get this resolved.

"I've been getting my head down and focussing on my training and getting ready for the season ahead. We're working as hard as we can to try and get this resolved. No one wants this resolved more quickly than I do.

"It's a difficult time for everyone.It's difficult for fans, it's difficult for riders but the support I've received has been incredible, it's been a huge help in this difficult time.

"The support has been amazing, and that goes for other riders as well, the support from within the peloton has been incredible."

Watch: Giro d'Italia route guide 2018

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWVoFpEyh_I

Froome has denied any wrongdoing in relation to an adverse analytical finding for salbutamol at the 2017 Vuelta a España, saying that he did not exceed the permitted maximum dosage for the asthma drug.

News of the case became public in December through a joint investigation by The Guardian and Le Monde, creating months of speculation while the UCI continues its investigation.

>>> Ruta del Sol 2018: Everything you need to know about Chris Froome's return to racing

Recent reports have stated that the case could be close to going before the UCI Anti-Doping Tribunal which will decide if Froome should be sanctioned, but Froome insists that once the details of the case are made public, people will see things from his perspective.

"There is a lot of misinformation out there," Froome continued," and there's also a lot of opinions of people who don't quite fully understand the process.

"I believe that when all the facts are out there people will see it from my point of view."

Froome is currently in southern Spain for the opening race of his 2018 at the Ruta del Sol, an event which he won when he last raced there in 2015.

The Ruta del Sol 2018 (February 14-18), otherwise known as the Vuelta a Andalucia, will see Chris Froome return to racing for the first time since news of his adverse analytical finding broke at the 2017 Vuelta a España broke in mid-December.

Froome has ridden the Ruta del Sol on two occasions in the past, finishing in 50th place while working as a domestique in 2011, before returning in 2015 when he won the race overall ahead by just two seconds ahead of Alberto Contador.

On that occasion Froome's victory was secured with a dominant performance on the summit finish to Alto de Allanadas, a climb that returns to the race in 2018 at the end of stage two and could prove to be the decisive moment of the event as the only proper summit finish.

Stage four sees another uphill finish to hilltop town of Alcalá de los Gazules, however this is less than half the length of the 5.5km Alto de Allanadas and should see smaller time gaps.

The final race winner should be decided on the final time trial, which is 14.2km in length and generally flat with a start and finish in the coastal town of Barbate.

The Ruta del Sol was first held in 1925, before not returning to the cycling calendar until 1955. Since then it has been held every year apart from 1978, with Alejandro Valverde winning the race for five of the last six years. The event is a 2.1 category race and part of the UCI Europe Tour.

Why is Chris Froome allowed to race in the Ruta del Sol?

While some figures including Vincenzo Nibali and UCI president David Lappartient have called on Team Sky to voluntarily suspend Froome from racing while he is under investigation for an adverse analytical finding at the 2017 Vuelta a España, Froome is perfectly entitled to take to the start line in southern Spain.

This is due to the nature of the substance which Froome was found to have twice the permitted concentration of in his urine in a test conducted after stage 17 of the 2017 Vuelta.

>>> Everything you need to know about Chris Froome's salbutamol case

Salbutamol is not classified as a "specified substance" by the World Anti-Doping Agency, meaning that Froome is not subject to a provisional suspension which would have seen him suspended from riding while the investigation was ongoing.

Instead Froome, who denies breaking anti-doping rules which allow athletes to take a maximum of 800mg of salbutamol per 12 hours, and, with Team Sky’s backing, has vowed to clear his name, will continue his preparation for the Giro d'Italia as normal. However if he is found to have broken the rules, then it is likely that any ban will see his results at the Ruta del Sol wiped out.

Ruta del Sol 2018 route

Stage one, February 14: Mijas to Granada, 197.6km

The opening stage of the Ruta del Sol features six classified climbs including a rude start to affairs with a second-category climb crested just 9.4km after the flag drops. The repeated climbs should be enough to drop any pure sprinters foolish enough to enter this hilly race, but we should still see a bunch sprint on the flat finish in Granada.

Stage two, February 15: Otura to La Guarda de Jaén (Alto de Allanadas), 140km

The toughest summit finish of the race, the Alto de Allanadas returns to the Ruta del Sol for the first time since 2015 when Chris Froome used it to set up overall victory. The climb may only be 5.5km in length, but features some brutally steep gradients on a narrow road, hitting 21 per cent halfway up and averaging 12 per cent for much of the final two kilometres.

Stage three, February 16: Mancha Real to Herrera, 166.1km

The only real flat road stage of the Ruta del Sol, stage three should see a relaxed day for the GC riders as the makes its way along wide roads towards a seemingly inevitable bunch sprint in Herrera. However with exposed roads for much of the day there is always the chance for crosswinds, especially if the wind blows from the south.

Stage four, February 17: Sevilla to Alcalá de los Gazules, 194.7km

The hilltop town of Alcalá de los Gazules presents the riders with a punchy summit finish with more double digit gradients to get their teeth into. At less than two kilometres in length this stage does not offer as much opportunity for forcing gaps as stage two, but will still see action regardless of the state of the GC.

Stage five, February 18: Barbate to Barbate, 14.2km (ITT)

The coastal town of Barbate is pretty much as far south as it's possible to get in mainland Spain, with the town playing host to the 14.2km time trial that will decide the race winner. The profile may look flat, but it tops out at around 150m from the start at sea level, meaning an uphill start to the stage and fast if untechnical descent back towards the finish.

Ruta del Sol 2018 stages

Ruta del Sol 2018 live TV guide

The 2018 Ruta del Sol will be shown live on Eurosport in the UK, although full details of the day-by-day TV coverage are still to be announced.

In 2017, the Ruta del Sol received an hour of live television coverage each day on Eurosport 1, generally starting around 15.00. There was also the chance to catch up with an hour of highlights broadcast on the evening of each stage as well as the following morning

Ruta del Sol 2018 favourites

The start list is still to be confirmed (see below), but a number of big riders have announced that they will be heading to the Ruta del Sol.

Alongside Froome, defending champion Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) is one of the major favourites, especially having won the overall and two stages at the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana in early February. Valverde should also be joined on the Movistar team by Mikel Landa, who was a key domestique in Froome's Tour de France triumph last July but has since left Team Sky for the Spanish squad.

Another WorldTour team with multiple options for the overall is Astana, who should come with both Luis Leon Sanchez and Jakob Fuglsang in their squad who finished second and third respectively behind Valverde at Valenciana. Other GC contenders could include Steven Kruijswijk (LottoNL-Jumbo), Amaro Manuel Antunes (CCC Sprandi Polkowice), and Jesus Herrada (Cofidis).

Ruta del Sol 2018 start list (to be confirmed)

Movistar (Esp)

VALVERDE Alejandro

LANDA Mikel

Ag2r La Mondiale (Fra)

BAGDONAS Gediminas

DILLIER Silvan

DUVAL Julien

GOUGEARD Alexis

NAESEN Oliver

VENTURINI Clément

Astana (Kaz)

FUGLSANG Jakob

CHERNETCKII Sergei

GATTO Oscar

KOZHATAYEV Bakhtiyar

MOSER Moreno

SANCHEZ Luis Leon

VALGREN Michael

EF Education First-Drapac (USA)

LANGEVELD Sebastian

VANMARCKE Sep

Lotto Soudal (Bel)

BAK Lars Ytting

HOFLAND Moreno

MONFORT Maxime

WELLENS Tim

MARCZYNSKI Tomasz

VAN DER SANDE Tosh

VANENDERT Jelle

LottoNL-Jumbo (Ned)

KRUIJSWIJK Steven

BATTAGLIN Enrico

BOUWMAN Koen

CLEMENT Stef

EENKHOORN Pascal

DE TIER Floris

WYNANTS Maarten

Team Sky (GBr)

DE LA CRUZ David

POELS Wout

FROOME Christopher

Burgos-BH (Esp)

MENDES José

Caja Rural-Seguros RGA (Esp)

SCHULTZ Nick

CCC Sprandi Polkowice (Pol)

ANTUNES Amaro Manuel

GRADEK Kamil

KOCH Jonas

KUMP Marko

OWSIAN Lukasz

CHLEGEL Michal

TRATNIK Jan

Cofidis (Fra)

Delko Marseille-Provence KTM (Fra)

MORENO Javier

FERNANDEZ Delio

JONES Brenton

KASPERKIEWICZ Przemys

MIHAYLOV Nikolay

SMUKULIS Gatis

TRARIEUX Julien

Direct Energie (Fra)

TAARAMÄE Rein

BOUDAT Thomas

COUSIN Jérôme

GAUDIN Damien

GRELLIER Fabien

PETIT Adrien

SICARD Romain

Euskadi-Murias (Bel)

BIZKARRA Mikel

LOUBET Julien

ABERASTURI Jon

PRADES Eduard

SAEZ Héctor

SANZ Enrique

BRAVO Garikoitz

Gazprom-RusVelo (Rus)

ARSLANOV Ildar

FIRSANOV Sergey

FOLIFOROV Alexander

KOZONCHUK Dmitry

LAGUTIN Sergey

SHALUNOV Evgeny

NYCH Artem

Israel Cycling Academy (Isr)

HERMANS Ben

Rally Cycling (USA)

ANDERSON Ryan

BRITTON Rob

DAL-CIN Matteo

DE VOS Adam

HUFFMAN Evan

JOYCE Colin

ORONTE Emerson

Sport Vlaanderen- Baloise (Bel)

NOPPE Christophe

PLANCKAERT Edward

RICKAERT Jonas

SPRENGERS Thomas

VAN GESTEL Dries

VAN Yarne

VAN HECKE Preben

VERWILST Aaron

Wanty-Groupe Gobert (Bel)

MARTIN Guillaume

BAUGNIES Jerome

DEGAND Thomas

DOUBEY Fabien

MINNAARD Marco

PASQUALON Andrea

VAN MELSEN Kevin

Vérandas Willems-Crelan (Bel)

GOOLAERTS Michael

WAEYTENS Zico

DE BIE Sean

DEVOLDER Stijn

DUIJN Huub

KRUOPIS Aidis

TANNER David

Ruta del Sol: last year's top 10 (2017)

1. Alejandro Valverde (Esp) Movistar, in 17-12-33

2. Alberto Contador (Esp) Trek-Segafredo, at 1 sec

3. Thibaut Pinot (Fra) FDJ, at 6 secs

4. Wout Poels (Ned) Team Sky, at 21 secs

5. Diego Rosa (Ita) Team Sky, at 45 secs

6. Mikel Landa (Esp) Team Sky, at 48 secs

7. Sebastien Reichenbach (Sui) FDJ, at 52 secs

8. Rigoberto Uran (Col) Cannondale-Drapac, at 1-29

9. Ondrej Cink (Cze) Bahrain-Merida, at 1-48

10. Javier Moreno (Esp) Bahrain-Merida, at 1-50

Ruta del Sol recent winners

2017 Alejandro Valverde

2016 Alejandro Valverde

2015 Chris Froome

2014 Alejandro Valverde

2013 Alejandro Valverde

2012 Alejandro Valverde

2011 Markel Irizar

2010 Michael Rogers

2009 Joost Posthuma

2008 Pablo Lastras

Speculation may have been rife about a possible rift between Chris Froome and Mikel Landa at last year's Tour de France, but the two men will now have a chance to properly go head-to-head at the upcoming Ruta del Sol.

With Froome's participation having been confirmed last week, Mikel Landa has now been named in the Movistar line-up for the race having made the move across from Team Sky for 2018.

The race will be Landa's first in the new light blue colours of Movistar, where he will lead a team consisting of Andrey Amador, Jorge Arcas, Carlos Barbero, Héctor Carretero, Imanol Erviti and Marc Soler.

>>> Ruta del Sol 2018: Everything you need to know about Chris Froome's return to racing

With Nairo Quintana having finished second overall behind Team Sky's Egan Bernal in the recent Colombia Oro y Paz race in South America, the Ruta del Sol will be Landa's first chance to lay down an early-season marker with both him and Quintana targetting leadership of Movistar at the Tour de France in July.

Watch: Tour de France route guide 2018

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QaCHePwsEuk

Landa finished fourth at the 2017 Tour de France, missing out on a podium spot by just one second, after working as a domestique for Chris Froome as the Brit secured a fourth yellow jersey in Paris.

Rumours about his move to Movistar (which was publicly confirmed in August) began to circulate during the race, with Landa arguably fuelling speculation over his future as he looked strong while Froome was dropped on stage 12, before getting in an escape and finishing fourth on the short and punchy stage 13 to Foix.

>>> Luke Rowe confirms return to racing at Abu Dhabi Tour after career-threatening injury

However Landa remained close to Froome as he defended his lead through the Alps on stages 17 and 18, finishing with the main contenders on both of these days.

The Ruta del Sol starts on February 14 and consists of five stages of racing around the region of Andalusia in southern Spain. The race is likely to be decided on the two summit finishes on stages two and four, although there are also likely to be time gaps on the final time trial on stage five.

Chris Froome will start his 2018 season at the Ruta del Sol (February 14-18) as he begins his preparation for the Giro d'Italia while lawyers and medical experts continue to work behind the scenes to clear his name in the ongoing salbutamol case.

Froome has spent the early part of the year training in South Africa, and will travel to Europe to begin his 2018 season in southern Spain where he took victory in 2015.

Team Sky have faced calls from the likes of UCI president David Lappartient to voluntarily suspend Froome while the investigation into his adverse analytical finding at the 2017 Vuelta a España is concluded, but have apparently decided against taking this course of action.

>>> Everything you need to know about Chris Froome's salbutamol case

Froome has denied breaking anti-doping rules which allow athletes to take a maximum of 800mg of salbutamol per 12 hours, and, with Team Sky's backing, has vowed to clear his name.

"I’m confident that we will be able to get to the bottom of what has happened and I’m working hard with the team to do that," Froome said.

"Obviously I understand that this situation has created a lot of uncertainty. I completely get why there has been so much interest and speculation.

"I hope that people will appreciate there are limits to what I can say whilst the process is still ongoing but no one is keener than me to move things forward as quickly as possible."

Watch: Giro d'Italia 2018 route guide

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWVoFpEyh_I

Team general manager Dave Brailsford also said that the team were hopeful that the matter would be resolved as quickly as possible.

"We all recognise that these are difficult circumstances but it’s important for all sides that this process is conducted fairly before a final conclusion is reached," Brailsford said.

"It is a complex situation but we’re working as hard as we can with Chris to resolve things as soon as possible".

>>> 272km, 45kmh: Chris Froome's astonishing 'Empty the Tank' training ride on Strava

The 2018 Ruta del Sol will consist of five stages between February 14 and February 18, including a summit finish on stage two, a short uphill finish on stage four, and a 13km time trial on the final day.

Team Sky have not yet announced the six riders who will line-up alongside Froome at the Ruta del Sol, otherwise known as the Vuelta a Andalucia. Alejandro Valverde is the defending champion, and is expected to lead Movistar after taking victory at the recent Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana.

Tim Wellens (Lotto-Soudal) won the sprint from a seven-man breakaway group to win the final stage of the 2017 Ruta del Sol, as Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) sealed the overall.

Wellens beat Simon Clarke (Cannondale-Drapac) and Victor Campenaerts (LottoNL-Jumbo) in the final push for the line, making a powerful effort to claim the victory on a blustery and wet day in southern Spain.

>>> FC Porto score summit finish victory at Volta ao Algarve as Primoz Roglic wins overall

Valverde safely finished behind in the peloton, with his nearest rival Alberto Contador (Trek-Segafredo) finishing on the same time and unable to over turn the one second deficit he came into the final stage with.

The day's break got away early on, with Marco Minnaard (Wanty-Groupe Gobert), Garikoitz Bravo (Euskadi), Maciej Paterski (CCC), Nick Van Der Lijke (Roompot) and Domen Novak (Bahrain Merida) joining Wellens, Clarke and Campenaerts.

They established a gap of over four minutes within the first 20km, and the lack of sprinter teams at the race meant there was no-one to take up a chase in earnest, with Valverde's Movistar team happy to let the break go and give themselves and easy day.

The eight riders worked well together and had over a minute as they reached the final 4km. By this time, Bravo had been shelled after failing to keep the pace and as the remaining seven reached 2.5km to go, they all began to look at each other.

After several dummy moves, it was Wellens that launched his move first with 300m to go. Despite the early effort, the Belgian was able to hold off Clarke with a powerful effort, adding a third win to his tally in 2017 after winning two days of the Challenge Mallorca.

Valverde safely rolled in amongst the bunch behind, adding a fifth Ruta del Sol to his palmarès after victories in 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2016.

Results

Ruta del Sol stage five, Setenil de las Bodegas (Cádiz) - Coín (Málaga), (151.5k)

1. Tim Wellens (Bel) Lotto Soudal, in 3-58-31

2. Simon Clarke (Aus) Cannondale-Drapac

3. Victor Campenaerts (Bel) Team LottoNl-Jumbo

4. Maciej Paterski (Pol) CCC Sprandi Polkowice

5. Domen Novak (Slo) Bahrain-Merida

6. Nick Van Der Lijke (Ned) Roompot - Nederlandse Loterij all same time

7. Marco Minnaard (Ned) Wanty - Groupe Gobert, at 1-34

8. Hector Saez (Esp) Caja Rural-Seguros RGA, at 1-45

9. Ivan Garcia (Esp) Bahrain-Merida

10. Hugo Hofstetter (Fra) Cofidis, Solutions Credits, all same time

Final general classification

1. Alejandro Valverde (Esp) Movistar, in 17-12-33

2. Alberto Contador (Esp) Trek-Segafredo, at 1 sec

3. Thibaut Pinot (Fra) FDJ, at 6 secs

4. Wout Poels (Ned) Team Sky, at 21 secs

5. Diego Rosa (Ita) Team Sky, at 45 secs

6. Mikel Landa (Esp) Team Sky, at 48 secs

7. Sebastien Reichenbach (Sui) FDJ, at 52 secs

8. Rigoberto Uran (Col) Cannondale-Drapac, at 1-29

9. Ondrej Cink (Cze) Bahrain-Merida, at 1-48

10. Javier Moreno (Esp) Bahrain-Merida, at 1-50

With the Tour of Oman, Ruta del Sol, and the Volta ao Algarve all taking place this week there's lots for cycling fans to enjoy, but all three races have seen pros take to Twitter to complain about motorbike outriders allowing riders to draft behind them.

The latest complaint came from André Greipel, who complained to the UCI about a motorbike rider letting Primoz Roglic draft behind him in Friday's Volta ao Algarve time trial.

Roglic finished third in the time trial and moved into the overall lead with his performance on the day.

Dan Martin, the man who preceded Roglic as the race leader in Algarve, was one of the other pros to complain about drafting, this time at the Tour of Oman where the Irishman spotted a motorbike giving a tow to the breakaway duo of Mark Christian and Preben Van Hecke.

To complete the set of this week's races, Tosh Van der Sande spotted a similar incident at the Ruta del Sol where a Trek-Segafredo rider was taking full advantage of a motorbike riding too close to the peloton

The complaints come just over a week after the UCI introduced new rules designed at regulating race motorbikes to improve the safety for riders.

According to the new regulations, camera motorcycles should film "from 3/4 in front of the riders [i.e. not directly in front of the riders] and not remain permanently in front of the peloton".

In a time trial there should be "around 100m/150m" gap between the motorbike in front of the rider, and the rider themself.

Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) produced a scintillating display on the queen stage of the Ruta del Sol, catching and passing Alberto Contador (Trek-Segafredo) in the final few hundred metres.

Contador had attacked early on the six kilometre finishing climb of the Peña del Águila, quickly opening a gap over a chasing group of Pinot and the Team Sky trio of Wout Poels, Diego Rosa, and Mikel Landa as race leader Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) seemed to be in trouble behind.

But while Contador had gone for broke, Pinot and Valverde were pacing themselves well, and while Valverde was able to ride his way back across to the small chasing group to limit his losses to seven seconds, Pinot had bigger aspirations.

The Frenchman rode away from the Team Sky riders, and as the climb flattened out in the final kilometre he had Contador in his sights.

It was an agonising wait as Pinot clawed his way across the final few bike lengths to reach Contador's back wheel, where he waited for just a second before launching a stinging attack to win the stage for a few bike lengths.

Despite missing out on the stage win, Contador gained enough time on Valverde to move into the leader's jersey, while Pinot moved up to second.

The queen stage of the Ruta del Sol saw a five man breakaway group escape early. Tim Wellens (Lotto-Soudal) was the first to go on the attack, being joined by Antonio Nibali (Bahrain Merida), Georg Preidler (Team Sunweb), Felix Grosschartner (CCC Sprandi Polkowice), and Xandro Meurisse (Wanty-Groupe Gobert).

The group worked well together, building up a gap of more than eight minutes to the peloton with 100km gone of the 177.9km stage.

Trek-Segafredo, Team Sky, and Movistar all shared chase duties, and as the gap began to fall in the second half of the stage, Wellens went on the attack from the break, first dragging Grosschartner with him, and then going solo on the ramps of the second category Puerto de las 7 Pilillas climb with 50km remaining.

At that point the Belgian had an advantage of more than six minutes, looking smooth and comfortable as he looked to pick up his second victory of the season in a similar manner to his first.

However Wellens's progress was not all smooth, as he lost grip on his back wheel at a roundabout with just over 30km to go, hitting the deck before leaping back on his bike only a little road rash to show for it.

The same roundabout caused problems in the peloton as a number of riders also crashed, although the main contenders at the front of the group were unaffected.

Much of the final 30km was uphill, and with Trek-Segafredo and Team Sky sitting on the front of the peloton Wellens's advantage steadily fell, dropping below two minutes for the first time on the penultimate climb of the day with 15km to go.

By the time Wellens reached the bottom of the final climb, the Belgian was within sight of the Vasil Kiriyenka-led peloton, throwing in the towel as the road narrowed and ramped up.

The first attack of the climb came from Warren Barguil (Team Sunweb), briefly opening a gap before being pulled back into the fold by Team Sky's Mikel Nieve, before a counter-attack from Nieve's team-mate Mikel Landa.

The Spaniard quickly established a 15 second gap before settling into a rhythm on the nine per cent gradients. Landa looked smooth, but hardwork from Trek-Segafredo's Fabio Felline clawed Contador back into contention.

And as soon as Felline peeled off with 2.5km to go, Contador's attack came, jumping over the top of Landa and dropping all of the other race contenders.

The attack caused chaos behind, with a Thibaut Pinot leading the chase ahead of the Team Sky trio of Poels, Landa, and Diego as race leader Alejandro Valverde was unexpectedly dropped with Ion Izagirre (Bahrain-Merida), quickly conceding 25 seconds to Contador.

But as the gradient flattened out near the top of the climb, Pinot managed to grab on to the coat tails of Contador, with the Frenchman catching his breath for a second, before coming over the top of the Spaniard to win the stage by a comfortable margin.

Behind, Valverde had paced himself perfectly on the steep slopes, joining up with Rosa and Landa, before finding a final burst of speed to come home third, only seven seconds down on Pinot.

Tomorrow's 12 kilometre time trial looks like the last chance for riders to shake up the top of the general classification, with two flat finishes stages four and five.

Results

Ruta del Sol stage two, Torredonjimeno - Alto Peña del Águila, Mancha Real (Jaén), (177.9km):

1. Thibaut Pinot (Fra) FDJ, in 4-44-03

2. Alberto Contador (Esp) Trek-Segafredo at 2 seconds

3. Alejandro Valverde (Esp) Movistar Team at 7s

4. Ion Izaguirre (Esp) Bahrain-Merida, same time

5.  Mikel Landa (Esp) Team Sky, at 9s

6. Diego Rosa (Ita) Team Sky, st

7. Wout Poels (Ned) Team Sky, at 13s

8. Sébastien Reichenbach (Sui) FDJ, at 28s

9. Pieter Weening (Ned) Roompot - Nederlandse Loterij at 46s

10. Floris De Tier (Bel) Team LottoNl-Jumbo, st

Overall classification after stage two

1. Alberto Contador (Esp) Trek-Segafredo, in 8-46-33

2 Thibaut Pinot (Fra) FDJ, at 3s

3 Alejandro Valverde (Esp) Movistar Team, at 5s

4 Jon Izaguirre (Esp) Bahrain-Merida, st

5 Diego Rosa (Ita) Team Sky, at 7s

6 Wout Poels (Ned) Team Sky, at 11s

7 Mikel Landa (Esp) Team Sky, at 12s

8 Sébastien Reichenbach (Sui) FDJ, at 26s

9 Rigoberto Uran (Col) Cannondale-Drapac, at 49s

10 Pieter Weening (Ned) Roompot - Nederlandse Loterij at 1-08

Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) took victory in the opening stage of the Ruta del Sol, winning the sprint ahead of an elite group of climbers that went clear over the final ascent of the day.

Valverde is a four-time winner of this race, and took his eighth Ruta del Sol stage win as he shadowed numerous attacks from Alberto Contador (Trek-Segafredo) up the Alto de Monachil.

The Movistar rider reached the summit of the final climb with 19km to alongside a small group of climbers, before attacking on the technical descent to go solo.

He was joined by Contador, Wout Poels and Diego Rosa (Team Sky), Sebastien Reichenbach (FDJ), and Ion Izaguirre (Bahrain-Merida), with the elite group of climbers battling it out on the flat finish in Granada.

And it was Valverde who proved the fastest, comfortably beating Poels and Reichenbach in the final sprint for the line.

The break went early on the first stage of the Ruta del Sol, with Georg Preidler (Team Sunweb) Tosh Van der Sande (Lotto-Soudal),  Florian Sénéchal (Cofidis), Berden de Vries (Roompot-Nederlandse Loterij), Daniel Turek (Israel Cycling Academy), Kirill Sveshnikov (Gazprom-RusVelo), and Ibai Salas (Burgos BH) going clear.

The group had quickly built a gap of more than five minutes within the first 30km, but with Alberto Contador's Trek-Segafredo team taking up the chase at around the mid-point of the stage, the gap quickly began to fall.

The break's advantage dropped below a minute for the first time with 55km to go, with Turek, Van de Sande and Sénéchal seperating themselves from their breakaway companions shortly after.

However with the final climb of the day, Alto de Monachil rapidly approaching, Trek-Segafredo continued to set a fearsome pace, catching the remains of the break with 36km remaining, six kilometres before the start of the climb.

The American team continued to set the pace at the start of the ascent, with Jesus Hernandez and Haimar Zubeldia riding hard to shed a number of riders off the back of the peloton.

>>> Watch: Alejandro Valverde catches some air in daring descent on way to Vuelta a Murcia win

As the climb started to ramp up, Trek-Segafredo were joined on the front of the main group by riders from Movistar and Team Sky, but it was Contador who launched the first attack.

Contador quickly opened a significant gap, with Alejandro Valverde seeing the need to follow the move to join his compatriot at the front of the race.

However the two Spaniards could not hold the same seering pace on the steep roads, being joined by Wout Poels and Diego Rosa, Ion Izaguirre, and Rigoberto Uran (Cannondale-Drapac).

That elite front group became steadily less select as more riders joined up from behind, with one of those riders, Mikel Landa (Team Sky) taking the opportunity to go over the top of the group and open a slender gap with two kilometres to go to the summit of the climb.

But Contador has grit between his teeth, reeling in Landa before the top of the climb, before Valverde leapt clear on the technical first few kilometres of the descent.

The Movistar rider reached speeds of 100kmh on the descent, but was joined by Izaguirre, Contador and Rosa with 10km to go.

>>> Ruta del Sol 2017 TV guide

Three of those four worked hard to maintain their advantage, but Rosa chose to sat on as team-mate Poels chased with Reichenbach behind, making the junction with three kilometre remaining to the finish in Granada.

As the sextet went under the flamme rouge, Reichenbach launched a brief, futile attack form the back of the group, but it was Valverde who opened the sprint.

And the Spaniard never looked like losing, with none of the climbers in the group able to come close to making the catch.

Result

Ruta del Sol 2017, stage one: Rincón de la Victoria to Granada, 155.4km

1. Alejandro Valverde (Esp) Movistar, in 4-02-28

2. Wout Poels (Ned) Team Sky

3. Sebastien Reichenbach (Sui) FDJ)

4. Diego Rosa (Ita) Team Sky

5. Ion Izaguirre (Esp) Bahrain-Merida

6. Alberto Contador (Esp) Trek-Segafredo, all at same time

7. Thibaut Pinot (Fra) FDJ, at 5 secs

8. Mikel Landa (Esp) Team Sky

9. Rigoberto Uran (Col) Cannondale-Drapac

10. Warren Barguil (Fra) Team Sunweb, all at same time

General classification after stage one

1. Alejandro Valverde (Esp) Movistar

2. Wout Poels (Ned) Team Sky

3. Sebastien Reichenbach (Sui) FDJ)

4. Diego Rosa (Ita) Team Sky

5. Ion Izaguirre (Esp) Bahrain-Merida

6. Alberto Contador (Esp) Trek-Segafredo

7. Thibaut Pinot (Fra) FDJ

8. Mikel Landa (Esp) Team Sky

9. Rigoberto Uran (Col) Cannondale-Drapac

10. Warren Barguil (Fra) Team Sunweb

Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) won the final stage of the Ruta del Sol on Sunday and with it took the overall victory in the Spanish stage race.

The 35-year-old Spaniard attacked on the final climb to secure the stage victory and overhaul overnight leader Tejay van Garderen at the top of the general classification. Van Garderen had to settle for second place overall, with Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo) in third.

Former race leader Ben Swift (Team Sky) had been part of an early 13-man move, but that was caught by the peloton as the race worked its way over a series of classified climbs in the mid-section of the 164km stage.

Nicolas Roche (Team Sky), Tim Wellens (Lotto-Soudal) and Jerome Baugnies (Wanty-Groupe Gobert) then escaped inside the final 50km on the first of two ascents of Peñas Blancas.

>>> Ruta del Sol 2016: Latest news, reports and info

By the base of the final turn up Peñas Blancas, the trio's advantage was just 10 seconds and they were mopped up as the road started to rear up with 14km to go.

Team Sky hit the front of the peloton for Poels, with time trial world champion Vasil Kiryienka setting a tough pace to prevent attacks. The number in the lead group quickly got whittled down to around 20 riders.

Daniel Moreno (Movistar) attempted to break free of Sky's clutches, but Mikel Nieve (Team Sky) ground out a pace to reel him back in. All the while, van Garderen was keeping in touch with the lead group, letting Sky do the work.

Valverde was the next to put in an attack, and swiftly opened up a gap of just under a minute over van Garderen and Poels. With 3km to go, van Garderen decided enough was enough, and he started to chase after Valverde with Rafal Majka (Tinkoff) and Mollema  following his wheel.

Try as he might, van Garderen simply couldn't close the gap to Valverde and the Movistar rider was free to take a solo stage win and the overall win.

Van Garderen was ultimately passed by Mollema and Majka too, placing fourth on the stage. Despite their earlier efforts, Sky ended the day empty handed except for Swift's points classification lead.

Results

Ruta del Sol 2016, stage five: San Roque to Peñas Blancas, 164km

1. Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar

2. Bauke Mollema (Ned) Trek-Segafredo at 36 secs

3. Rafal Majka (Pol) Tinkoff at 42 secs

4. Tejay van Garderen (USA) BMC Racing at 48 secs

5. Roman Kreuziger (Cze) Tinkoff at 1-07

6. Daniel Navarro (Spa) Cofidis at 1-08

7. Wilco Kelderman (Ned) LottoNL-Jumbo at 1-16

8. Igor Anton (Spa) Dimension Data at 1-19

9. Mikel Nieve (Spa) Team Sky at 1-27

10. Luis Angel Mate (Spa) Cofidis at 1-30

Final general classification

1. Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar

2. Tejay van Garderen (USA) BMC Racing at 26 secs

3. Bauke Mollema (Ned) Trek-Segafredo at 52 secs

4. Wilco Kelderman (Ned) LottoNL-Jumbo at 56 secs

5. Rafal Majka (Pol) Tinkoff at 1-11

6. Roman Kreuziger (Cze) Tinkoff at 1-37

7. Wout Poels (Ned) Team Sky at 1-42

8. Brent Bookwalter (USA) BMC Racing at 2-03

9. Daniel Navarro (Spa) Cofidis at 2-14

10. Mikel Nieve (Spa) Team Sky at 2-45

Tejay van Garderen (BMC) took the lead in the 2016 Ruta del Sol ahead of Sunday's final stage, after winning the individual time trial on stage four ahead of Wilco Kelderman (LottoNL-Jumbo).

The American set off 24th from last on the 21km course in Alhaurín de la Torre and it quickly became apparent that the pace he was setting would be the time to beat.

He eventually rolled across the finish line of the undulating course with a time of 27-05, but had to wait for a number of GC hopefuls, including Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) and Wout Poels (Team Sky) to take to the course.

Neither of those two were able to do anything about Van Garderen moving up the standings though, as they finished 27 and 20 seconds down respectively, damaging their hopes of making losses back on the final stage's summit finish.

Dutchman Kelderman came closest to deposing Van Garderen from top spot, narrowly missing out on the win by two seconds.

The biggest disappointment of the day came from time trial world champion Vasil Kiryienka (Team Sky), who was unable to get close to the podium in his specialist discipline, finishing 40 seconds of the pace. His teammate Ben Swift, who lead the race after Friday's third stage, was also unable to hold on to his lead as he finished way down the rankings.

Van Garderen's win though, sets things up nicely for the fifth and final stage on Sunday, which will see the riders traverse five categorised climbs on a 164.2km route, including a huge summit finish to Alto Peñas Blancas.

Result

Ruta del Sol 2016 stage four, Alhaurín de la Torre - Alhaurín de la Torre (21km), ITT:

1. Tejay van Garderen (USA) BMC, in 27-05

2. Wilco Kelderman (Ned) LottoNL-Jumbo, at 2 secs

3. Jerome Coppel (Fra) IAM Cycling, at 7 secs

4. Brent Bookwalter (USA) BMC, at 15 secs

5. Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) Direct Energie, at 17 secs

6. Wout Poels (Ned) Team Sky, at 20 secs

7. Samuel Sanchez (Esp) BMC, at 21 secs

8. Alejandro Valverde (Esp) Movistar, at 22 secs

9. Javier Moreno (Esp) Movistar, at 24 secs

10. Tobias Ludvigsson (Swe) Giant-Alpecin, at 34 secs

General Classification

1. Tejay van Garderen (USA) BMC, in 12-53-57

2. Wilco Kelderman (Ned) LottoNL-Jumbo, at 2 secs

3. Jerome Coppel (Fra) IAM Cycling, at 7 secs

4. Brent Bookwalter (USA) BMC, at 15 secs

5. Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) Direct Energie, at 17 secs

6. Wout Poels (Ned) Team Sky, at 20 secs

7. Samuel Sanchez (Esp) BMC, at 21 secs

8. Alejandro Valverde (Esp) Movistar, at 22 secs

9. Javier Moreno (Esp) Movistar, at 24 secs

10. Tobias Ludvigsson (Swe) Giant-Alpecin, at 34 secs

Oscar Gatto (Tinkoff) took the win on stage three of the Ruta del Sol, but Ben Swift's second podium finish in as many days was enough to see the Team Sky man move into the overall lead.

Gatto took the win quite easily, outsprinting Swift and Raymond Kreder (Roompot-Oranje Peloton) in Padul in a race where the breakaway almost took the win.

Breakaway rider Daniel Navarro (Cofidis) was caught by the winner of the 2015 Vuelta a España mountains classification, Omar Fraille (Dimension Data) in the final 15km

Together the pair made it to the final two kilometres before being swallowed up by the bunch, which had been reduced to around 50 thanks to the climbs that littered the third stage.

As the group took the final corner, Team Sky came out near the front with Vasil Kiryienka working for Swift, but Gatto and Tinkoff had the beating of everyone, with the Italian cruising to his first victory since joining the Russian team at the start of the season.

Vuelta a Andalucia Ruta Ciclista del Sol stage three, Monachil - Padul (157.9km)

1. Oscar Gatto (Ita) Tinkoffm 3-53-17

2. Ben Swift (GBr) Team Sky, st

3. Raymond Kreder (Ned) Roompot-Oranje Peloton, st

4. Tim Wellens (Bel) Lotto-Soudal, st

5. Fabio Felline (Ita) Trek-Segafredo, st

6. Brent Bookwalter (USA) BMC, st

7. Simon Geschke (Ger) Giant-Alpecin, st

8. Philippe Gilbert (Bel) BMC, st

9. Reto Hollenstein (Swi) IAM Cycling, st

10. Mateo Busato (Ita) Southeast-Venezuala, st

Overall standings after stage three

1. Ben Swift (GBr) Team Sky

2. Raymond Kreder (Ned) Roompot-Oranje Peloton

3. Reto Hollenstein (Swi) IAM Cycling

4. Philippe Gilbert (Bel) BMC

5. Fabio Felline (Ita) Trek-Segafredo

Cofidis sprinter Nacer Bouhanni took the bunch finish at the end of stage two of the Ruta del Sol, beating Fabio Felline (Trek-Segafredo) and Ben Swift (Team Sky) to the line in Cordoba.

The Frenchman took advantage of a great leadout by teammate Christophe Laporte, who finished fourth, to canter across the line and into the race lead.

Having crested the climb that came around 15km from the finish line, Dimension Data's Kanstantin Siutsou tried his luck on his own off the front of the group.

But the descent down into the city of Cordoba allowed a group of reduced numbers to for, with around 35 riders contesting the final few kilometres.

Ben Swift had Gianni Moscon for company, but with general classification hope Wout Poels also with them the Italian was likely working to keep the Dutchman safe as well as trying to set Swift up for the sprint.

As it was, Bouhanni got himself in a better position on the narrow finishing straight and easily sped to the line.

Vuelta a Andalucia Ruta Ciclista del Sol stage two, Palomares del Rio - Cordoba (186.3km)

1. Nacer Bouhanni (Fra) Cofidis, 4-39-33

2. Fabio Felline (Ita) Trek-Segafredo, st

3. Ben Swift (GBr) Team Sky, st

4. Christophe Laporte (Fra) Cofidis, st

5. Raymond Kreder (Ned) Roompot-Oranje Peloton, st

6. Juan Jose Lobato (Esp) Movistar, st

7. Tosh Van der Sande (Bel) Lotto-Soudal, st

8. Keil Reijnen (USA) Trek-Segafredo, st

9. Enrico Battaglin (Ita) LottoNL-Jumbo, st

10. Matteo Busato (Ita) Southeast-Venezueala, st

Overall standings after stage two

1. Nacer Bouhanni (Fra) Cofidis,

2. Juan Jose Lobato (Esp) Movistar

3. Raymond Kreder (Ned) Roompot-Oranje Peloton

4. Ben Swift (GBr) Team Sky

5. Tosh Van der Sande (Bel) Lotto-Soudal

6. Reto Hollenstein (Swi) IAM Cycling

7. Keil Reijnen (USA) Trek-Segafredo

8. Daniele Bennati (Ita) Tinkoff

9. Enrique Sanz (Esp) Southeast-Venezueala

10. Enrico Battaglin (Ita) LottoNL-Jumbo

Chris Froome (Team Sky) sealed overall victory at the Ruta Del Sol by finishing safely in the bunch on the final stage on Sunday.

Juan José Lobato (Movistar) won the bunch sprint which, although uphill, was neither steep nor long enough to encourage Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) to attack and make up the two seconds needed to take victory away from Froome.

The result marks a winning start to the season for the Sky rider, and is also the first time he has got the better of his Spanish rival in an overall classification since the 2013 Tour de France.

The GC also makes good reading for the rest of Team Sky, with Mikel Nieve finishing fourth, Peter Kennaugh seventh and Kanstanstin Siutsou tenth. Splits at the end had meant that Nieve lost some time by fishing behind the lead group, but not enough to see him fall down the classification.

Credit: Chris Catchpole

Inside the Ruta del Sol

In the sprint for the stage win, Lobato’s burst was so strong that he managed to open a gap over runner-up John Degenkolb (Giant-Alpecin) of one second, while third place Sylvain Chavanel (IAM Cycling) finished a further second behind in third place.

Shortly beforehand it looked as though the race would not even come down to a sprint, after Edward Theuns (Topsport Vlaandaren) had taken everyone by surprise by launching an attack as the road ramped up with one kilometre to go. His team had set-up the attack impressively by leading the bunch in the run-in to the finish, but the ploy didn’t quite work out as Lobato came charging past him in the final few hundred metres.

The break of the day consisted of Johnny Hoogerland (Roompot), Merhawi Kudus (MTN-Qhubeka) and Maciej Paterski (CCC-Sprandi-Polkowice). The trio lacked cohesion, eventually prompting Paterski to break clear alone, before he was finally caught with around five kilometres to go.

Results
Ruta del Sol 2015, stage five

1 Juan Jose Lobato (Spa) Movistar in 03-48-56

2 John Degenkolb (Ger) Giant-Alpecin at 0-01

3 Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) IAM Cycling at 0-02

4 Grega Bole (Slo) CCC Sprandi-Polkowice

5 Pim Ligthart (Ned) Lotto-Soudal

6 Christopher Froome (Gbr) Team Sky

7 Jan Bakelants (Bel) Ag2r-La Mondiale

8 Alberto Contador (Esp) Tinkoff-Saxo

9 Nicholas Edet (Fra) Cofidis

10 Enrico Gasparotto (Ita) Wanty-Groupe Gobert all st

Final overall classification

1. Christopher Froome (Gbr) Team Sky, in 17-32-16

2. Alberto Contador (Esp) Tinkoff-Saxo, at 2 seconds

3. Beñat Intxausti (Esp) Movistar, at 2-38

4. Mikel Nieve (Esp) Team Sky, at 3-05

5. Romain Bardet (Fra) Ag2r-La Mondiale, at 3-13

Chris Froome (Team Sky) managed to drop his nemesis Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) to win stage four of the 2015 Ruta Del Sol. The Briton also moves into the overall lead by a mere two seconds.

Froome unleashed his attack towards the top of the final climb to Alto de Allanadas, and Contador was initially the only rider in the bunch who managed to stick to his wheel. But Froome’s acceleration did not relent, and eventually the Spaniard cracked and was dropped, from which point on it became a case of damage limitation.

The gap between the two continued to increase very gradually as the finish line approached, and Froome managed to gain the 28 seconds needed to take the leader’s jersey by the narrowest of margins.

Credit: Chris Catchpole

Inside the Ruta del Sol

Earlier on the climb, Sky had worked over the peloton with Peter Kennaugh and Mikel Nieve each putting attacks in before Froome made his definitive move.

Prior to the final climb, Simon Geschke (Giant-Alpecin) and Mirko Selvaggi (Wanty-Groupe Gobert) spent much of the day at the front and built a lead of several minutes over the peloton. After sticking to Geschke’s wheel without coming ahead to take a turn, Selvaggi attacked his breakway companion in the run-in to the final climb, but was himself caught by the bunch when Kennaugh was making his attack.

Geschke and Selvaggi had broken clear of an original group of nine riders who formed the early break, including young British talent Hugh Carthy (Caja Rural).

Tomorrow’s stage five is the last one of the race, and, despite the generally flat parcours, Froome will have to be alert to protect his slender lead in the GC.

Results
Ruta del Sol 2015, stage four: Maracena - Alto de Allanadas, 202km
1. Christopher Froome (Gbr) Team Sky, in 5-08-54
2. Alberto Contador (Esp) Tinkoff-Saxo, at 28 seconds
3. Mikel Nieve (Esp) Team Sky, at 49 seconds
4. Sylwester Szmyd (Pol) CCC, at 59 seconds
5. Beñat Intxausti (Esp) Movistar, at 01-00

Overall classification after stage four
1. Christopher Froome (Gbr) Team Sky, in 17-32-16
2. Alberto Contador (Esp) Tinkoff-Saxo, at 2 seconds
3. Beñat Intxausti (Esp) Movistar, at 2-32
4. Mikel Nieve (Esp) Team Sky, at 2-52
5. Romain Bardet (Fra) Ag2r-La Mondiale, at 3-13

As early season races go, the Ruta del Sol is certainly a toughie. A split stage on day one with a road race and a time trial, as well as two category one summit finishes later in the race, riders have little time to find their race legs if they're hoping to pull out a result .

>>> Ruta del Sol day one in pictures

But it's also the first time for many riders that they'll be taking new bikes, setups and kit into competitive action, and for some possibly the start of racing with a whole new team.

Cycling Weekly's Chris Catchpole took his camera out to Andalucia to catch an inside glimpse at the five-day spanish race.

An Ag2r team Focus Izalco max wait for its rider by the team bus entrance

Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) took his first win of the season on the summit finish of stage three of the 2015 Ruta del Sol, while also consolodating his overall lead in the GC.

The Spaniard broke away from the leading group of riders at around 7.5km from the finish line, near the foot of the final category one climb of Alto de Hazallanas.

Chris Froome (Team Sky) was unable to react quickly enough to Contador's attack, having been too far away from the front of the group. He then pursued the 2014 Vuelta a España champion in a chasing bunch that included his teammate Peter Kennaugh as well as other GC hopefuls Beñat Intxausti (Movistar) and eventually, Romain Bardet (Ag2r-La Mondiale).

Contador stretched out a gap to a maximum of 35 seconds, before Froome went solo to try and catch the race leader, or at the very least cut his time losses.

It was slow progress for the Brit on the long climb which ramped up to gradients of a maximum of 20 per cent in places, but he managed to finish second on the stage with a time deficit of 19 seconds to Contador.

It means that Froome now sits 27 seconds behind his arch rival in the Ruta del Sol general classification, with Intxausti, Bardet and Kennaugh all sitting around two minutes or more behind Contador, who retains the red jersey as the race head towards its second mountain finish on Saturday.

Results

Ruta del Sol 2015, stage three: Motril – Alto de Hazallanas, 160km

1. Alberto Contador (Esp) Tinkoff-Saxo, in 4-51-57

2. Christopher Froome (Gbr) Team Sky, at 19 seconds

3. Romain Bardet (Fra) Ag2r-La Mondiale, at 1-41

4. Beñat Inxausti (Esp) Movistar, at 1-58

5. Mikel Nieve (Esp) Team Sky, at 2-01

6. Wilco Kelderman (Ned) LottoNL.Jumbo, at 2-05

7. Merhawi Kudus (Eri) MTN-Qhubeka, at 2-15

8. Peter Kennaugh (Gbr) Team Sky, at 2-16

9. Sebastian Reichenbach (Swi) IAM Cycling, at 2-30

10.  Sergio Pardilla (Esp) Caja Rural, at 2-42

Overall classification after stage three

1. Alberto Contador (Esp) Tinkoff-Saxo, in 12-22-55

2. Christopher Froome (Gbr) Team Sky, at 27 seconds

3. Beñat Inxausti (Esp) Movistar, at 1-59

4. Romain Bardet (Fra) Ag2r-La Mondiale, at 2-13

5. Peter Kennaugh (Gbr) Team Sky, at 2-28

6. Mikel Nieve (Esp) Team Sky, at 2-30

7. Kanstantin Siutsou (Blr) Team Sky, at 3-19

8. Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) IAM Cycling, at 3-41

9. Nicolas Edet (Fra) Cofidis, at 4-10

10. Gorka Izaguirre (Esp) Movistar, at 4-15

Juan Jose Lobato (Movistar) outsprinted John Degenkolb (Giant-Alpecin) to claim the victory on stage two of the 2015 Ruta del Sol.

The Spaniard made a long-range sprint from around five riders back, which caught Degenkolb unawares in the final stretch, with the German unable to react in time to catch Lobato, who cruised over the line with his hands aloft.

Alberto Contador, who made a short-lived attack in the closing kilometre or so, retained the red leader's jersey of the race having finished in the front group of riders which also included Chris Froome (Team Sky), who moved up to third in GC.

The 195km route from Utrera to Lucena contained only one categorised climb; a third category less than 10km from the line. But it failed to make any real impact on the race despite attacks from Nicolas Edet (Cofidis) and Carlos Quintero (Columbia), with the peloton coming back together before the end to give the sprinters a chance at a stage win before the race reaches the high mountains.

Earlier in the day a five-rider breakaway, which included Adrian Honkisz (CCC), Primin Lang (IAM Cycling), Nicholas Dougall (MTN), Sjoerd Van Ginneken (Team Roompot) and Aleksandr Komin (RusVelo), formed quickly, but were unable to hold-off the chasing pack, getting caught shortly before the race hit the stage's main climb.

More riders, including Britain's Peter Kennaugh (Team Sky) attempted to ruin the party for the sprinters, but in the end it was Lobato who was able to make the timely move to seal the second stage of the Ruta del Sol.

Friday's stage three sees the first opportunity for the climbers to make their mark, with three categorised climbs on the route, including a mountain top finish on the category one Alto Hazallanas.

Result

Ruta del Sol 2015, stage two: Utrera - Lucena, 195km

1. Juan José Lobato (Esp) Movistar, in 4-51-57

2. John Degenkolb (Ger) Giant-Alpecin, same time

3. Grega Bole (Slo) CCC Sprandi Polkowice, same time

4. Arthur Vichot (Fra) FDJ, same time

5. Eduard Prades (Esp) Caja Rural, same time

Selected others

12. Christopher Froome (Gbr) Team Sky, same time

Overall classification after stage two

1. Alberto Contador (Esp) Tinkoff-Saxo, in 8-03-40

2. Beñat Inxausti (Esp) Movistar, at 1 second

3. Christopher Froome (Gbr) Team Sky, at 8 seconds

4. Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) IAM Cycling, at 8 seconds

5. Peter Kennaugh (Gbr) Team Sky, at 12 seconds

6. Ivan Basso (Ita) Tinkoff-Saxo, at 17 seconds

7. Edward Theuns (Bel) Topsport Vlaanderen - Baloise, at 18 seconds

8. John Degenkolb (Ger) Giant-Alpecin, at 20 seconds

9. Kanstantin Siutsou (Blr) Team Sky, at 21 seconds

10. Mikel Nieve (Esp) Team Sky, at 28 seconds

Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) moved into the overall lead at the Ruta del Sol after finishing fourth in the stage 1b time trial in Coria del Rio.

The Spaniard finished six seconds back from his compatriot Javier Moreno (Movistar), who won the stage with a time of 09-51. Contador was one second ahead of third-place Beñat Inxausti in the GC, and on equal time with Bobby Jungels (Trek Factory Racing).

Contador sits ahead of the Luxembourg rider by virtue of finishing higher placed on the stage, and will wear the red jersey after starting the stage two seconds behind Pim Lighthard (Lotto-Soudal).

Team Sky's Chris Froome finished in tenth place, 14 seconds behind Moreno, leaving him eight seconds behind rival Contador in fourth on the GC. Fellow Brit Peter Kennaugh (Team Sky) also moved into the top ten on GC, just four seconds off Froome.

The 8.2km course contained two uncategorised climbs, but they were not enough to trouble the leading riders, with eight of the top ten averaging over 49kmph in the individual time trial.

Tomorrow's stage sees the peloton race from Utrera to Lucena on a 194.7km course that includes a tricky third category climb close to the finish.

>>> Where to watch the Ruta del Sol 2015

Results

Ruta del Sol 2015 stage 1b: Coria del Rio - Coria del Rio, 8.2km TT

1. Javier Moreno (Esp) Movistar, 09-51

2. Wilco Kelderman (Ned) LottoNL.Jumbo, at 2 seconds

3. Jérome Coppel (Fra) IAM Cycling, at 4 seconds

4. Alberto Contador (Esp) Tinkoff-Saxo, at 6 seconds

5. Beñat Inxausti (Esp) Movistar, at 7 seconds

6. Bob Jungels (Lux) Trek Factory Racing, at 8 seconds

7. Gorka Izaguirre (Esp) Movistar, at 11 seconds

8. Jérome Pineau (Fra) IAM Cycling, at 11 seconds

9. Vasil Kiryienka (Blr) Team Sky, at 13 seconds

10. Chris Froome (Gbr) Team Sky, at 14 seconds

Overall classification after stage 1b

1. Alberto Contador (Esp) Tinkoff-Saxo, 3-11-43

2. Bob Jungels (Lux) Trek Factory Racing, same time

3. Beñat Inxausti (Esp) Movistar, at 1 seconds

4. Chris Froome (Gbr) Team Sky, at 8 seconds

5. Sylvain Chavanel (Fra) IAM Cycling, at 8 seconds

6. Peter Kennaugh (Gbr) Team Sky, at 12 seconds

7. Ivan Basso (Ita) Tinkoff-Saxo, at 17 seconds

8. Edward Theuns (Bel) Topsport Vlaanderen - Baloise, at 18 seconds

9. John Degenkolb (Ger) Giant-Alpecin, at 20 seconds

10. Michael Valgren, (Den) Tinkoff-Saxo, at 20 seconds

Ligthart takes stage 1a

Earlier in the day, Lotto-Soudal's Pim Ligthart took the race lead after winning a sprint from a heavily reduced peloton on the stage 1a road race.

The Dutchman edged out Fabio Silvestre (Trek Factory Racing) of Portugal by two seconds on the 118km stage from La Rabida to Hinojos. Crashes a few kilometres from the finish had caused the peloton to split and left a lead group of 27 riders heading for the line.

Both Froome and Contador finished safely in the lead group at 14th and 19th respectively, but other riders, including Bauke Mollema (Trek Factory Racing) and Wilco Kelderman (LottoNL.Jumbo), lost time on the leaders.

Peter Kennaugh was Britain's highest finisher on the stage, placing 12th before the afternoon's time trial.

Results

Ruta del Sol 2015 stage 1a and overall: La Rabida - Hinojos, 118.3km

1. Pim Ligthart (Ned) Lotto-Soudal, 3-01-44

2. Fabio Silvestre (Por) Trek Factory Racing, at 2 seconds

3. Grega Bole (Slo) CCC Sprandi Polkowice, at 2 seconds

4. Michael van Staeyen (Bel) Cofidis, at 2 seconds

5. Tyler Farrar (USA) MTN-Qhubeka, at 2 seconds

Selected others:

12. Peter Kennaugh (Gbr) Team Sky, at 2 seconds

14. Chris Froome (Gbr) Team Sky, at 2 seconds

19. Alberto Contador (Esp) Tinkoff-Saxo, at 2 seconds

He’s at it again. FDJ rider Jeremy Roy is once again using an on-bike camera at the Vuelta a Andalucía and once again he’s finding himself evading a number of huge crashes.

Just one stage into the Ruta del Sol race, Roy has dodged two crashes that have occurred right in front of him, including one which required several riders to get off their bikes and manoeuvre through the mass of bodies.

>>> Where to watch the Ruta del Sol 2015

The peloton was split in two by the second crash, just 3km before the finish line, which brought dozens of riders to the ground.

With Roy finding himself in his usual ‘middle of the peloton’ position, he found him caught up behind the carnage and had to scoot to the opposite side of the road to skirt round the mess.

>>> Jeremy Roy avoids more crashes in Australia (video)

The video ends with a still of the rear wheel of one of Roy’s teammate’s Lapierre bikes, which looks a little mangled. Don’t expect this to be the last crash we see from Roy’s camera. The man’s got form.

Chris Froome is eager to see just how his rival Alberto Contador is shaping up this season as the two best stage racers in the world come head to head for the first time in 2015 at the Ruta del Sol.

Beginning near Seville on Wednesday, February 18, with a split road and time trial stage, the five-day Vuelta a Andalucia becomes progressively more difficult as the week progresses, including a summit finish on Saturday, February 21.

“It will be really interesting to see where rivals like Alberto Contador will be in terms of their condition,” Froome said ahead of the race. “But there are a lot of good riders here so I imagine it’s going to be a really tough week.”

While Nairo Quintana (Movistar) was a late withdrawal following a crash at the Colombian national championships earlier this month, Froome will still face up to the likes of Jean-Christophe Peraud, Romain Bardet (Ag2r-La Mondiale) and Bauke Mollema (Trek).

“It’s a great race to have so early in the season given that it’s so challenging,” Froome added. “It’s got the climbs, the short TT, it’s got a bit of everything, and the crosswinds down here. It’s a great race to really get back into that feeling of racing again.”

While still early in the season, the race offers the first opportunity for many of the 2015 Tour de France’s likely contenders to bag an early victory and score some psychological points over their rivals, even if Vincenzo Nibali (Astana), Tejay van Garderen (BMC) and Thibaut Pinot (FDJ) - first, second and fifth at last year's Tour - have opted for the Tour of Oman.

“We [Contador and I] are not going to draw, that’s for sure,” Froome added. “I know what work I’ve done to get here and I know I’ve got a lot more work to do before I’m in Tour de France form.

“I don’t know where Alberto’s at, whether he’s in his Tour de France form already or if he’s still got a bit of work to do. I’ve had a decent winter with minimal interruptions; it’s been good training for me, the weight is good, I’ve done all the exercises I need to do, I feel healthy and more than anything I’m looking forward to getting stuck into it again.”

Froome declined to comment on reports that Contador may hang up his wheels at the end of next  season, reiterating that he would like to keep riding for at least another decade.

“Every rider is different but for me personally I love riding my bike and I hope to be able to continue until I’m 40, or until my body will allow me,” he said. “If Alberto is going to be retiring, he wants to finish at the top and he’s definitely at the top of the sport and that’s his decision.”

Alejandro Valverde won stage one of the Ruta del Sol today to consolidate his overall lead after claiming yesterday’s prologue.

Valverde was well protected by his Movistar teammates on the 2.4km climb to the finish with Jon Izagirre executing a well-time lead-out in the final run. Bauke Mollema (Belkin) was just off the pace for second with the 42 year old Davide Rebellin (CCC) rounding out the podium.

Britain’s Peter Kennaugh and Geraint Thomas dug deep inside the last 10km working for Sky teammate Richie Porte, who could not match the speed of the diminished front group and placed fourth.

An 11-man break including Beñat Txoperena (Euskadi), Christo Venter (MTN-Qhubeka), Bartlomiej Matysiak (CCC), Jesus Ezquerra (ActiveJet), Stephane Poulhies (Cofidis), Tom Van Asbroeck (Topsport Vlaanderen-Balsoide), Lluís Guillermo Mas (Caja Rural-Seguros), Alexis Guerin (Etixx), Lennard Hofstede (Rabobank Development), David Lozano (Novo Nordisk) and Nico Sijmens (Wanty-Groupe Gobert) escaped some 10km into the 186km stage, which the winner covered in just over five hours.

The escapees were allowed a healthy advantage throughout but the real show began some 50km from the finish when Sky and Movistar started to mobilise at the front of the main group.

Unsuccessful attacks then came thick and fast inside the final 30km and the race leaders were all done with 10km remaining, after which Sky started driving on the front of the main group.

A series of climbs to Jaen saw only some eight riders contest the finish with Thomas peeling off inside the last 2km.

The tour continues tomorrow with a 182km run from Sanlucar La Mayor to Sevilla.

Results
Ruta del Sol 2014, stage one: Velez Malaga to Jaen, 186km

1. Alejandro Valverde (Esp) Movistar 5-08-57

2. Bauke Mollema (Ned) Belkin at 4 secs

3. Davide Rebellin (Ita) CC Polsat Polkowice

4. Richie Porte (Aus) Sky

5. Luis Leon Sanchez (Spa) Caja Rural-Seguros

6. Julien Simon (Fra) Cofidis at 11 secs

7. Daniel Navarro (Spa) Cofidis at 12 secs

8. Ruben Plaza Molina (Spa) Movistar at 15 secs

9. Thomas Degand (Bel) Wanty Groupe Gobert at 16 secs

10. Tanel Kangert (Est) Astana at 17 secs

Overall classification after stage one

1. Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar 5-17-19

2. Richie Porte (Aus) Sky at 19 secs

3. Luis Leon Sanchez (Spa) Caja Rural-Seguros at 21 secs

4. Haimar Zubeldia Agirre (Spa) Trek at 37 secs

5. Tanel Kangert (Est) Astana at 38 secs

Valverde gets better of Wiggins and Sky in Ruta del Sol

Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) won the prologue at the Ruta del Sol today, mounting a strong start to the defence of his title.

The Spaniard was the last man to start the 7.3km prologue around Almeria with the time of his team mate Jon Izaguirre as a target. Izaguirre himself had set a time four seconds faster than Team Sky's Vasil Kiryienka who had been at the top of the leaderboard for some time.

Kiryienka's time had held strong even as his team mates Geraint Thomas and Bradley Wiggins crossed the line. the pair were one second slower than the Belarusian suggesting his time might be good enough to win.

But then Izaguirre and soon after Tom Dumoulin beat his time, before Valverde came in 13 seconds faster than Kiryienka.

Tomorrow's stage heads through the mountains with six classified climbs on the 186.8km route. The race finishes on Sunday in Fuengirola.

RESULT

Vuelta a Andalucia Ruta Ciclista del Sol: prologue. Almeria to Almeria 7.3km

1. Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar in 8-22

2. Tom Dumoulin (Ned) Giant-Shimano at 7 secs

3. Jon Izaguirre (Spa) Movistar at 9 secs

4. Vasil Kiryienka (Blr) Team Sky at 13 secs

5. Geraint Thomas (GBr) Team Sky at 14 secs

6. Bradley Wiggins (GBr) Team Sky at 14 secs

7. Richie Porte (Aus) Team Sky at 15 secs

8. Javier Moreno (Spa) Movistar at 15 secs

9. Simon Geschke (Ger) Giant-Shimano at 16 secs

10. Haimar Zubeldia (Spa) Trek Factory Racing at 16 secs

Overall classification after prologue

1. Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar in 8-22

2. Tom Dumoulin (Ned) Giant-Shimano at 7 secs

3. Jon Izaguirre (Spa) Movistar at 9 secs

4. Vasil Kiryienka (Blr) Team Sky at 13 secs

5. Geraint Thomas (GBr) Team Sky at 14 secs

6. Bradley Wiggins (GBr) Team Sky at 14 secs

7. Richie Porte (Aus) Team Sky at 15 secs

8. Javier Moreno (Spa) Movistar at 15 secs

9. Simon Geschke (Ger) Giant-Shimano at 16 secs

10. Haimar Zubeldia (Spa) Trek Factory Racing at 16 secs