Classica Camp de Morvedre: Christian Scaroni opens up 2026 account with victory from three-man move

A five-rider early break that formed on the approach roads to the first ascent of three of the Alto del Garbí, containing Bálint Feldhoffer (Bahrain Victorious), Thomas Bonnet (TotalEnergies), Léandre Huck (Van Rysel-Roubaix), Enzo Leijnse (Anicolor-Campicarn) and Joan Cadena (Technosylva Maglia Bembibre) gained nearly five minutes before the peloton began reacting.

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Cadena eventually cracked and fell behind, but the remainder of the break powered on. Meanwhile, there were unconfirmed reports of an important abandon: Michael Matthews (Jayco-AlUla), a winner of Saturday’s Ruta de la Cerámica-GP Castellón two years ago and always a favourite for a sprint after hilly terrain, quit with unspecified injuries following a mid-race crash.

The heavy artillery began to fire in the second ascent of the Garbí with less than 50 kilometres to go, when UAE Team Emirates-XRG’s Marc Soler and Bahrain Victorious racer Antonio Tiberi both launched major attacks. The break crumpled under the fast-rising pressure behind, leaving only Bonnet out front to reach the top of the Garbí alone and guarding a scant ten-second advantage on the stretched-out peloton.

Rather than get reeled in, though, Bonnet subsequently received a major boost to his chances on the descent as Soler, Nairo Quintana (Movistar), Wout Poels (Unibet Rose Rockets) and Clément Izquierdo (Cofidis) bridged across.

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Blasting along the flat section before the last ascent of the Garbí and its average gradient of nearly 10% – and rising to 16% near the summit – the five gained an advantage of 30 seconds. Jayco-AlUla, however, were still chasing hard behind, and shortly after the breakaway crossed the finish line for the second last time, the move collapsed completely.

The narrow, poorly surfaced ascent of the Garbí instantly impacted on the already tired peloton as it tackled the climb for a third and final time, with XDS-Astana, keen not be caught out a second time, setting the pace early on thanks to 2025 Giro d’Italia leader Diego Ulissi. Then Scaroni made the most of teamwork to lay down a rasping attack mid-way up, so powerful only Tiberi and Colombia’s Diego Pescador could bridge across.

The bunch splintered completely yet again, but finally, Spanish National Champion Ivan Romeo (Movistar) pushed the hardest to try and bridge across to his young Colombian teammate. However, with a gap at 40 seconds and rising on a fast, twisting and fortunately bone-dry super-long descent back to the finish, it was looking like a major challenge for Romeo to make it over.

At least, though, Romeo’s counterattack enabled Pescador to sit behind his two much more experienced rivals all the way to when the road finally eased to a much more gradual descent with around eight kilometres to go. But with their closest rival, Romeo, nearly 40 seconds behind when the breakaway reached the outskirts of the finish town of Estivella, it was by now for sure that the win would come from the trio out front.

Scaroni led into the final kilometre, then an attempt by Pescador to go clear was quickly clamped down by the two Italians, neither of whom likely was prepared to see the Colombian win after he’d sat on for so long. Perhaps with that in mind, Scaroni then made sure he was first into a final left-hand bend as the trio accelerated for the finish. With not enough distance for the other two to react before the finish after the corner, from 30 metres out, XDS-Astana’s first win of 2026 was comfortably in the bag.

Saturday continues the series of races in the Valencia region with the Gran Premio Castellon – Ruta de la Céramica, on a slightly less hilly course, but with a difficult second category close to the finish, likely to be decisive. UAE Team Emirates-XRG, surprisingly absent from the action on Saturday but fielding defending champion Antonio Morgado on Sunday, will once again be the key reference point.