Vuelta a Andalucía: Christophe Laporte sprints to victory on chaotic opening stage of Ruta del Sol

The Ruta del Sol started in Benahavís with a very lumpy 163.9km stage to Pizarra. After just under 4km of neutral zone the riders headed straight up the category one Puerto del Madroño, which was almost 20km in length.

Attacks came on the climb with the first man off the front being Visma-Lease a Bike’s Victor Campenaerts. He was left out front solo for some time before Ander Okamika (Burgos-BH-Burpellet) launched to try and join the Belgian. Okamika was dragged back with a new move going clear featuring Alan Jousseaume (TotalEnergies), Josh Burnett (Burgos-NH-Burpellet), Jon Agirre (Euskaltel-Euskadi) and Jonathan Caicedo (Petrolike). However, they didn’t get far either and were brought back again.

Campenaerts was keeping solid on his own with over a minute’s advantage on the peloton. He rolled over the top of Puerto del Madroño to take the 10 mountains classification points, with Jesús Herrada (Burgos-BH-Burpellet) leading the peloton over the top ahead of Juan Pedro López (Movistar), Quinten Hermans (Pinarello-Q36.5), Torstein Træen (Uno-X Mobility) and Alessandro Fancellu MBH Bank CSB Telecom Fort), who completed the points. They were trying to force a new breakaway but just managed to bring Campenaerts back into the bunch again. Iker Mintegi (Euskaltel-Euskadi) was the first rider to abandon the race.

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Victor Campenaerts was the lone leader in the early phase of the stage (Image credit: Szymon Gruchalski/Getty Images)

After 50km of racing it appeared that the breakaway had finally formed with Rayan Boulahoite (TotalEnergies), Ibai Azanza (Kern Pharma), Nicolás Alustiza (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Dylan Vandenstorme (Flanders-Baloise), Lucas Towers (Modern Adventure), Luca Cretti (MBH Bank CSB Telecom Fort) and Burnett, with the seven man group getting a gap over a minute over the bunch before the start of the second climb of the day, the category 3 Puerto del Viento.

The breakaway never got a gap bigger than one minute and twenty seconds over the peloton. Vandenstorme took the three points on the Viento climb ahead of Burnett and Cretti. Back in the bunch a group of 14 riders launched a new attack on the third and final climb of the day, the Puerto de las Abejas, which was category 3 also.

The 14 riders bridged to the front of the race with several very talented riders. Burnett did take the Puerto de las Abejas climb, though, followed by Aleksandr Vlasov (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) and Jefferson Cepeda (Movistar). In the group there were riders such as Tom Pidcock (Pinarello-Q36.5), Tim Wellens (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), Christophe Laporte (Visma-Lease a Bike), Pavel Sivakov (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and more.

Tom Pidcock was active in the attacks (Image credit: Szymon Gruchalski/Getty Images)

Others in the new move were Jan Christen (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), Ivan Romeo (Movistar), Adrien Boichis (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), Luke Tuckwell (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), Ivan Cobo (Kern Pharma), Jose Maria Martin (Kern Pharma), Clement Braz Afonso (Groupama-FDJ United), Clement Russo (Groupama-FDJ Suez), Ion Izagirre (Cofidis), Axel Zingle (Visma-Lease a Bike), Matisse Van Kerckhove (Visma-Lease a Bike), Victor Campenaerts (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Loe van Belle (Visma-Lease a Bike).

However, due to the size of the group, several attacks came to try and form a smaller move. Zingle led a new move with Cepeda, Boichis, Christen, Romeo, Azanza, Vandenstorme, Burnett, Alustiza, Hermans, Tuckwell and Cobo. They quickly got over 25 seconds on the rest of the break.

The chasing group were then absorbed by the peloton with about 45km to go. The chasing pack also closed a lot of time on the leaders with Uno-X Mobility, Pinarello-Q36.5 and Groupama-FDJ United pushing the pace. Cepeda then hit the deck in the breakaway after a bidon bounced back into the road after a rider chucked it to team staff in a feed zone. The Ecuadorian was able to continue.

Back in the peloton the Pinarello-Q36.5 riders were ripping up the peloton for Pidcock as Christen tried moves in the breakaway as well. The final 40km was being set up to be a dramatic finale as various teams looked to set up a sprint with others looking for a reduced bunch or even a solo win.

Finally, the breakaway was caught just leaving the village of Monda with 36km to go. However, Christen tried another move and this created havoc in the bunch with splits forming all over the road. It did come back together fully, though. But the lull of pace meant another attack went with eight riders involved led by Sivakov. But, this was also brought back.

Nobody was able to get control of the race with a plethora of attacks going off the front of the peloton. The peloton wasn’t for giving up, though, and the race continued to be aggressive with several teams looking to get a chance to take a win.

Jan Christen was keen to race on the front foot (Image credit: Szymon Gruchalski/Getty Images)

After being one of the most aggressive teams in the race for the majority of the day, Visma-Lease a Bike turned their attention to setting up the sprint for the likes of Laporte and Zingle. TotalEnergies also joined in the pacing. The race’s complexion completely changed in the final 30km after all the attacking, and the peloton had a real hold on the pacing.

A crash took down around eight riders at the back of the peloton with riders from Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, Petrolike, TotalEnergies and Flanders-Baloise. All seemed to get back on the bikes and ride again, though. The peloton did briefly split due to the crash, but it all came back together again.

It took the peloton a very long time to really get up to full lead-out speed, with the bunch rather sedate by professional bike racing standards with 6km to go. Finally the tempo was upped dramatically with 4km to go. The road was rather narrow, though, with five teams blocking out the front of the bunch.

Various teams tried to take control but it was a late arriving Visma-Lease a Bike that placed their man, Laporte, best into the final 800 metres. A late bend did throw off the perfect lead-out with Ben Oliver (Modern Adventure) having to take action and jump onto the pavement to avoid crashing. Laporte was then propped on the front before Brent Van Moer (Pinarello-Q36.5) was the first to launch with about 400 metres to go.

Van Moer served as a lead-out man for the rest of the bunch but nobody wanted to go. Eventually Tronchon and Laporte launched, with the latter having the power to take the win. It was Tronchon holding on for second and Oliver taking a very impressive third.

The GC is the same as the stage due to no bonus seconds coming until later in the race.