Challenge Mallorca: Jesus Herrada wins opener in Felanitx

Jesus Herrada (Cofidis, Solutions Credits) claimed victory on the opening day of the Challenge Mallorca, when he won atop the Puig de Sant Salvador at the end of the Trofeo Ses Salines-Campos-Porreres-Felanitx.

The Spaniard beat Guillaume Martin (Wanty-Groupe Gobert) into second place, while Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo) took third place. World champion Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) came home in fourth place on the opening race day of the European season.

Some 30 or so riders remained in contention after the opening slopes of the 5km finishing climb, and the first telling attack was launched by José Goncalves (Katusha-Alpecin) with a little over 3km to go. The Portuguese rider was joined on the offensive by Martin, and the duo carried a lead of 14 seconds in the final kilometre.

An elite chasing group was forming behind, however, and closed in on the leading duo as the gradient stiffened nearer the summit. Herrada proved the strongest on the climb, ripping clear to claim an emphatic solo victory. Despite his earlier efforts, Martin held on for second place, just ahead of Mollema and Valverde.

Herrada will share the headlines in the Spanish press on Friday with the unfortunate Mikel Landa (Movistar), who was one of a number of riders to come down in a crash in the peloton with 19km remaining.

Landa abandoned with a shoulder injury and his Movistar team reported that he had been taken to hospital for further assessment. Rasmus Iversen (Lotto Soudal), who was part of the day's early break, was left with a suspected fractured collarbone in the same incident.

How it unfolded

Iversen had been voted the day’s most combative rider after escaping shortly after the start in Ses Salines in the company of Antonio Soto (Fundacion Euskadi) and Jacob Hennessy (Canyon DHB).

The trio struck up a solid working alliance and had a lead of more than five minutes by the time they hit the 20km mark.

When the gap yawned out to 6:50 soon afterwards, Movistar took up the reins in the main peloton and worked to keep the gap at manageable dimensions, while out in front, Rasmus led the escapees over the first two category 4 ascents of the day.

At some 100km into the race, there was a notable injection of pace in the peloton as Movistar upped the ante, and their forcing pared down the break's lead significantly. With a shade over 50km to go, the gap was down to just 1:20, and this development inspired Lars Boom (Roompot-Charles) and Pim Ligthart (Direct Energie) go on the offensive in a two-up counter-attack.

Boom and Ligthart combined well and at one point closed to within touching distance of the three leaders. Unfortunately for this experienced Dutch tandem, the bunch never quite lost a clasp of their coattails, and they were pegged back with 36km remaining.

By then, the early escapees had only 12 seconds in hand on the bunch, and Iversen and Soto soon elected to sit up. Hennessy, who raced for Mitchelton-Scott’s under-23 team last year, persisted a little longer but the British youngster was eventually caught by the peloton a shade over 30km from home.

The pace was such that nobody could escape over the penultimate climb, the category 4 Coll Es Monjos, where Jempy Drucker (Bora-Hansgrohe) was first to the top. Although the peloton was reduced in size by the crash with 19km to go, its intensity was undiminished all the way to the base of final ascent of Puig de Sant Salvador, where Herrada proved the strongest. It was the 10th victory of Herrada’s career, and his first since landing the Spanish national title in 2017.

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