Wellens wins the Ruta del Sol after decisive dirt road time trial

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Tim Wellens (Lotto Soudal) secured overall victory at the Ruta del Sol with a cool and collected ride in the 14km final time trial that included a long spectacular section of dirt roads.

Wellens started the final 14km time trial with a lead of seven seconds on Mikel Landa (Movistar) and 11 seconds on Wout Poels (Team Sky) after winning Saturday's uphill stage to Alcala de los Gazules. He lost three seconds to the Dutchman but did enough to secure overall victory by eight seconds.

David de la Cruz (Team Sky) won the time trial in a time of 17:11, with Wellens setting a time of 17:25. Poels set an excellent time of 17:22 but he came up short. Marc Soler (Movistar) finished fifth in the time trial and so gained enough time to move up to third overall, at 27 seconds. Jakob Fuglsang (Astana) finished fourth at 30 seconds.

Big loser of the day was Landa. He lost a chunk of time and slipped to sixth overall, 42 seconds down on Wellens. Chris Froome (Team Sky) finished 11th, 27 seconds slower than de la Cruz in the time trial and ended his season debut 10th overall at 1:57. Despite his on-going salbutamol case, Froome intends to next race at Tirreno-Adriatico.

Wellens is not known as a time trialist but the seven-kilometre sector of dirt roads, much of it climbing gradually through a forest, helped him limit his losses.

"Today I felt strong and managed to do it. The time trial course was tough. The dirt roads reminded me of Strade Bianche but it was a good time trial," he said after pulling on the overall winner's red jersey.

"I won a stage here last year and so it's great to now win overall this year, this is a hard but great race."

Wellens started his 2018 season with a win at the Challenge Mallorca. He has no plans to ease up just yet and revealed he will even target Het Nieuwsblad next weekend on home roads in Belgium.

"My first major goal of the season is next weekend at Het Nieuwsblad. It's a new race for me but I think I've got the form to do something. After that I'll also target Paris-Nice," he said.

The rolling profile of the 14.2km time trial and the dirt road section made for a spectacular stage. The specialists still performed well but the route suited the puncheur riders.

Andrey Amador (Movistar) was only six seconds slower than De la Cruz despite his long attack on stage 4, while Stef Clement (LottoNL-Jumbo) was third at seven seconds, with Alexi Gougeard (AG2R-La Mondiale) fourth at eight seconds.

De la Cruz is one of Team Sky's new signings for 2018. He will perhaps fill a domestique role in the Grand Tours but proved his ability in the time trial and somewhat made up for Poels missing out on the win and Froome's off day. De la Cruz showed his ability by winning the final stage of Paris-Nice in 2017. He has also won stages at the 2016 Vuelta a Espana. He seems to have fitted in well at Team Sky.

"This win comes after the hard work I've done and good performances I've done in races such as the Vuelta a Pais Vasco, Paris-Nice. I'm really happy," he said.

"The team has helped me a lot to be ready, working with me on my position and with my equipment. It's good to have won. Time trialing is one of my strengths. I have a good style and have always tried to do well. This has given me a lot of confidence for the rest of the season."

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