Pim Ligthart won the opening stage of this year’s Ruta del Sol today, in a sprint finish ahead of Fabio Silvestre (Trek Factory Racing) and Grega Bole (CCC-Sprandi-Polkowice), following a crash marred finish during the final 3 kilometers.
“Of course I’m happy! The season couldn’t have started better,” said Ligthart. “After winning the GP La Marseillaise, it’s my second victory of the season. With the big crash at four kilometers from the end, there were only 20 riders left in front. I looked around and saw that the sprinters were isolated. I jumped at the right moment, took 20 meters and didn’t look behind me until the finish line.”
Meanwhile, Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) and Chris Froome (Team Sky) are able to remain outside of the fray, as they finished among the leading group.
“It’s bad news that I’m the only one who escaped the big crash,” Ligthart said.
“The other six riders of our team crashed or had to stop. We can forget about any GC ambitions. We’ll see what the damage is, and then we have to change our tactics. Tomorrow and Sunday there might be more sprint opportunities.”
Race Highlights
A breakaway group containing four riders managed to get away early on in today’s stage. However, after maintaining a modest advantage of around 3 minutes for the better part of today’s race, but the quartet was ultimately caught during the final 40 kilometers.
From there, a flurry of attacks at the head of the peloton took place during the final kilometers, but none were made to stick.
Stage 1a Results NED 1 LIGTHART, Pim (LOTTO SOUDAL) 3:01:44 POR 2 SILVESTRE, Fabio (TREK FACTORY RACING) + 2 SLO 3 BOLE, Grega (CCC SPRANDI POLKOWICE) BEL 4 VAN STAEYEN, Michael (COFIDIS, SOLUTIONS CREDITS) USA 5 FARRAR, Tyler (MTN – QHUBEKA) ITA 6 SELVAGGI, Mirko (WANTY – GROUPE GOBERT) BEL 7 THEUNS, Edward (TOPSPORT VLAANDEREN – BALOISE) POL 8 PATERSKI, Maciej (CCC SPRANDI POLKOWICE) ITA 9 RATTO, Daniele (UNITEDHEALTHCARE) NED 10 VAN GINNEKEN, Sjoerd (TEAM ROOMPOT) GER 11 DEGENKOLB, John (GIANT – ALPECIN) GBR 12 KENNAUGH, Peter (SKY) FRA 13 CHAVANEL, Sylvain (IAM CYCLING) GBR 14 FROOME, Christopher (SKY) NED 15 LEEZER, Thomas (LOTTO NL – JUMBO) LUX 16 JUNGELS, Bob (TREK FACTORY RACING) NED 17 HOOGERLAND, Johnny (TEAM ROOMPOT) RUS 18 SOLOMENNIKOV, Andrei (RUSVELO) ESP 19 CONTADOR VELASCO, Alberto (TINKOFF – SAXO) ESP 20 INTXAUSTI ELORRIAGA, Benat (MOVISTAR) ESP 21 NIEVE ITURALDE, Mikel (SKY) FRA 22 BARDET, Romain (AG2R LA MONDIALE) FRA 23 HARDY, Romain (COFIDIS, SOLUTIONS CREDITS) BLR 24 SIUTSOU, Kanstantsin (SKY) ITA 25 BASSO, Ivan (TINKOFF – SAXO) GBR 26 CUMMINGS, Stephen (MTN – QHUBEKA) DEN 27 ANDERSEN, Michael Valgren (TINKOFF – SAXO) RUS 28 KUSTADINCHEV, Roman (RUSVELO) + 9 FRA 29 MINARD, Sébastien (AG2R LA MONDIALE) GER 30 FRÖHLINGER, Johannes (GIANT – ALPECIN) + 11
General Classification after Stage 1a NED 1 LIGTHART, Pim (LOTTO SOUDAL) 3:01:44 POR 2 SILVESTRE, Fabio (TREK FACTORY RACING) + 2 SLO 3 BOLE, Grega (CCC SPRANDI POLKOWICE) BEL 4 VAN STAEYEN, Michael (COFIDIS, SOLUTIONS CREDITS) USA 5 FARRAR, Tyler (MTN – QHUBEKA) ITA 6 SELVAGGI, Mirko (WANTY – GROUPE GOBERT) BEL 7 THEUNS, Edward (TOPSPORT VLAANDEREN – BALOISE) POL 8 PATERSKI, Maciej (CCC SPRANDI POLKOWICE) ITA 9 RATTO, Daniele (UNITEDHEALTHCARE) NED 10 VAN GINNEKEN, Sjoerd (TEAM ROOMPOT)
photo credit @ Movistar
Following today’s opening stage, Javier Moreno (Movistar) won the time trial event, with the fastest time of 9:51 along the 8.2 kilometer course around the town of Coria del Rio.
Meanwhile, Wilco Kelderman (LottoNL-Jumbo) finished two seconds behind the leader, followed by Jerome Coppel (Cofidis) at four seconds.
Stage 1b Results ESP 1 MORENO BAZAN, Javier (MOVISTAR) 9:51 NED 2 KELDERMAN, Wilco (LOTTO NL – JUMBO) + 2 FRA 3 COPPEL, Jerome (IAM CYCLING) + 4 ESP 4 CONTADOR VELASCO, Alberto (TINKOFF – SAXO) + 6 LUX 5 JUNGELS, Bob (TREK FACTORY RACING) ESP 6 INTXAUSTI ELORRIAGA, Benat (MOVISTAR) + 7 ESP 7 IZAGUIRRE INSAUSTI, Gorka (MOVISTAR) + 11 FRA 8 PINEAU, Jérôme (IAM CYCLING) BLR 9 KIRYIENKA, Vasil (SKY) + 13 GBR 10 FROOME, Christopher (SKY) + 14
General Classification after Stage 1b ESP 1 CONTADOR VELASCO, Alberto (TINKOFF – SAXO) 3:11:43 LUX 2 JUNGELS, Bob (TREK FACTORY RACING) ESP 3 INTXAUSTI ELORRIAGA, Benat (MOVISTAR) + 1 GBR 4 FROOME, Christopher (SKY) + 8 FRA 5 CHAVANEL, Sylvain (IAM CYCLING) GBR 6 KENNAUGH, Peter (SKY) + 12 ITA 7 BASSO, Ivan (TINKOFF – SAXO) + 17 BEL 8 THEUNS, Edward (TOPSPORT VLAANDEREN – BALOISE) + 18 GER 9 DEGENKOLB, John (GIANT – ALPECIN) + 20 DEN 10 ANDERSEN, Michael Valgren (TINKOFF – SAXO)
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