Roger Adrià (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) won stage 1 of the Vuelta a Burgos, storming to victory atop the Alto del Castillo after a back-and-forth sprint against Jordan Labrosse (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale).
The Spanish rider opened up the final run to the line inside 400 metres to go, but was passed by the Decathlon rider and looked momentarily defeated, until finding a second wind and out-sprinting the French rider to his third professional victory.
Pre-stage favourite Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) was well-placed to contest the sprint for the first purple jersey, but misjudged a corner while following the pair in front and crashed, also taking out Clásica San Sebastián winner Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) in the process.
Afonso Eulálio (Bahrain Victorious) finished third at the castle in Burgos, four seconds down on Adrià, with Labrosse's teammate Léo Bisiaux close behind to take fourth.
"The team looked after me very well, and I was able to save my legs for this final climb. I entered well and decided to push hard in the last 400 meters, which I already knew," said Adrià.
"I'm super happy to win in Spain and in the Vuelta a Burgos, which is very beautiful and important in our country. Last year, I finished second in a stage, so I got that sting out of the way. Great riders always come here, and it's difficult to win."
Adrià looked ahead to the hardest climbing days on stages 3 and 5, with Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe's roster also featuring Jai Hindley and Giulio Pellizzari, who should be strong up the Puerto de Orduña and Lagnuas de Neila ascents.
The 42nd Vuelta a Burgos opened from Olmillos de Sasamón, with undulating terrain in Castilla y León offering up a punchy finale to the castle in Burgos city after 204km of racing.
A breakaway formed 175km from the finish, with six riders getting up the road: Dries De Bondt (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), Carlos García Pierna (Burgos Burpellet BH), Javier Ibáñez (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA), Mikel Bizkarra (Euskaltel Euskadi), Joan Gamundi and Asier Pablo Gonzalez (both Illes Balears Arabay).
They survived until the race reached the hardest climb of the stage, the category 1 Alto de la Mazorra (7km at 5.2%), where De Bondt and García Pierna emerged as the strongest. With 20km to go, the duo were still in front, but their lead was just 40 seconds, as the big teams ramped up the pace approaching the finale.
Finally the catch was made after the penultimate cateorised climb, with several attacks being launched soon after, but the best came from Samuel Fernández (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA), who made his move stick with 7km to go.
Lidl-Trek and Q36.5 chased hard to bring Fernández back before the foot of the Alto del Castillo in Burgos, with the final kilometre averaging 6% gradient. The solo escapee was caught halfway up the ascent and the final sprint for victory began.
Adriá hit out early for glory as the wide narrowed up to the castle in Burgos, finding a second effort to beat Labrosse to the line. The big news away from the win, though, was Del Toro and Ciccone crashing in one of the final bends, with both of their team's needing to asses their injuries, and both pre-race favourites certain to lose time.
Results
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