Miles Scotson holds on despite crashing to take stage one of Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana 2021
The former Australian champion used the wet roads to his advantage to go clear on a fast descent to the finish
Miles Scotson took stage one of the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana 2021 on his own ahead of the peloton led in by John Degenkolb, despite crashing in the final five kilometres.
Scotson (Groupama-FDJ) went clear with around 18km to go, using the descent from the Sa Creuta and powering clear from the nervy peloton on the damp roads. Degenkolb (Lotto-Soudal) sprinted to second.
This is the Australian's second-ever win away from the Australian national title he got back in 2017, which he took in a very similar fashion.
The weather played a huge part as the peloton was all over the road on the final climb and was stretched further on the descent with Movistar struggling to hold control.
The early break was joined by a much larger group that included some very dangerous riders for the stage and the overall, so it was swiftly brought back, setting up the late attack from Scotson.
Stage two of the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana is a lot flatter than stage one with a likely bunch sprint between the likes of Arnaud Démare (Groupama-FDJ) and Caleb Ewan (Lotto-Soudal) on the cards.
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How it happened
The early break that got away was made up of five riders with Raffaele Radice (Mg.k Vis VPN), Laurent Teugels (Tarteletto-Izorex), Stephen Bassett (Rally), Maxime Cam (B&B Hotels p/b KTM) and Ibon Ruiz (Kern Pharma).
They were later joined by a group of 11 riders including Swiss champion Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ) and one of the pre-race favourites Élie Gesbert (Arkéa-Samsic). This meant the gap to the peloton went from around two minutes to around 20 seconds with 37km to go.
Unsurprisingly, most of the riders on the front of the chase were from the WorldTour teams of Lotto-Soudal, Movistar and Cofidis along with top Spanish second division team, Caja Rural. The peloton managed to pull back to attackers with 32km to go.
The descent of the final climb of the day, the Sa Creuta, was fast and damp with riders stretching across the road. Miles Scotson (Groupama-FDJ) used that chaos in the pack to power away. Puerto Rican champion, Abner González (Movistar) tried to join him but could not match the power of the former Australian champion.
González dropped back to the peloton that was made up of only around 40 riders, 30 seconds behind Scotson with 18km to go. Movistar and Caja Rural were the only teams trying to chase.
In the chase Küng, Scotson’s team-mate was doing all he could to get in the way of the chase as Cofidis came up to try and help Movistar and Caja Rural with 7km to go.
Scotson had managed to pull out the gap to 48 seconds with 5km to go. The Australian continued to look solid for the stage win. That was suddenly in doubt with 3km to go as he crashed on a roundabout, but luckily he and his bike were fine and he managed to get back on the bike.
He held off the chasing peloton to take victory and the yellow leaders jersey by 28 seconds over the chasing peloton led in by Degenkolb.
Stage two starts and finishes in Alicante and takes on a lumpy profile of 179km before again descending to the finish on a very similar day to stage one.
Results
Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana 2021 stage one, Elche to Ondara (166km)
1. Miles Scotson (Aus) Groupama-FDJ, in 4-14-57
2. John Degenkolb (Ger) Lotto-Soudal, at 28 seconds
3. Alan Riou (Fra) Arkéa-Samsic
4. Colin Joyce (USA) Rally Cycling
5. Simone Consonni (Ita) Cofidis
6. Thibault Ferasse (Fra) B&B Hotels p/b KTM
7. Stefan Küng (Sui) Groupama-FDJ
8. Franck Bonnamour (Fra) Arkéa-Samsic
9. Jonathan Lastra (Esp) Caja Rural-Seguros RGA
10. Rémy Mertz (Bel) Bongoal-Pauwels Suaces-Wallonie Bruxelles, all at same time.
General classification
1. Miles Scotson (Aus) Groupama-FDJ, in 4-14-57
2. John Degenkolb (Ger) Lotto-Soudal, at 34 seconds
3. Alan Riou (Fra) Arkéa-Samsic, at 36s
4. Colin Joyce (USA) Rally Cycling, at 38s
5. Simone Consonni (Ita) Cofidis
6. Thibault Ferasse (Fra) B&B Hotels p/b KTM
7. Stefan Küng (Sui) Groupama-FDJ
8. Franck Bonnamour (Fra) Arkéa-Samsic
9. Jonathan Lastra (Esp) Caja Rural-Seguros RGA
10. Rémy Mertz (Bel) Bongoal-Pauwels Suaces-Wallonie Bruxelles, all at same time.
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Hi, I'm one of Cycling Weekly's content writers for the web team responsible for writing stories on racing, tech, updating evergreen pages as well as the weekly email newsletter. Proud Yorkshireman from the UK's answer to Flanders, Calderdale, go check out the cobbled climbs!
I started watching cycling back in 2010, before all the hype around London 2012 and Bradley Wiggins at the Tour de France. In fact, it was Alberto Contador and Andy Schleck's battle in the fog up the Tourmalet on stage 17 of the Tour de France.
It took me a few more years to get into the journalism side of things, but I had a good idea I wanted to get into cycling journalism by the end of year nine at school and started doing voluntary work soon after. This got me a chance to go to the London Six Days, Tour de Yorkshire and the Tour of Britain to name a few before eventually joining Eurosport's online team while I was at uni, where I studied journalism. Eurosport gave me the opportunity to work at the world championships in Harrogate back in the awful weather.
After various bar jobs, I managed to get my way into Cycling Weekly in late February of 2020 where I mostly write about racing and everything around that as it's what I specialise in but don't be surprised to see my name on other news stories.
When not writing stories for the site, I don't really switch off my cycling side as I watch every race that is televised as well as being a rider myself and a regular user of the game Pro Cycling Manager. Maybe too regular.
My bike is a well used Specialized Tarmac SL4 when out on my local roads back in West Yorkshire as well as in northern Hampshire with the hills and mountains being my preferred terrain.
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