The 2026 European road cycling season kicked off on Friday with victory in a three-way sprint for Christian Scaroni (XDS-Astana) in the rugged Classica Camp de Morvedre race in eastern Spain. Second in the 163.4 kilometre race was up-and-coming climber Diego Pescador (Movistar), with Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain-Victorious) in third.
In a race largely decided by multiple ascents of the category 1 Alto del Garbí, a searing acceleration by XDS-Astana on the lower slopes on the last time up the climb launched the trio three kilometres before the top.
While the opposition failed to reorganise in time to chase them down, Pescador tried to outwit the two more veteran racers with an early attack near the finish, but Scaroni - whose expertise in breakaways netted him a major Giro d'Italia mountain stage win last year ahead of teammate Lorenzo Fortunato - quickly bridged back up then outpowered his two rivals in the dash for the line.
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"We knew that normally at the start of the season I always start in a good way," Scaroni said. "The team did an incredible job for me from the first kilometre, I'm very happy to win for them."
Asked how he felt to win the first European race of the 2026 season, he replied, " It's always difficult because everybody looks at me and my team. But we know there are a lot of big riders here, and everybody is always very motivated here.
"In the last climb, me and Antonio attacked, I was really happy to collaborate with an Italian rider, in the end we reached the finish together, played out cards, and I won."
How it unfolded
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.
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.
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.
Results
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