Tadej Pogacar blasts to 36km solo Clásica Jaén Paraíso Interior victory

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The Clásica Jáen Paraíso Interior may have been Tadej Pogačar's first race of the season, but the Slovenian showed no sign of winter rust as he shot to a dominant solo victory.

Pogačar's UAE Team Emirates squad controlled the race over the gravel sectors for much of the day, their work duly rewarded as he made his move on an uphill gravel sector at 45km to go before bridging to the last breakaway rider standing and then going it alone 9km later.

The two-time Tour de France winner – who said at the start that his presence at the race was "just to try something different and spice up my calendar" – was unimpeachable on the challenging 179km course. He swiftly built a lead of over a minute to the favourites group in no time and predictably stayed away during the closing circuits of the final 30 kilometres to add yet another victory to his palmarès.

Pogačar's advantage would only grow as he blazed a lone trail on the laps around Baeza, expanding his lead up to two minutes as he raced into the final 10km as the chase group realised the victory was long gone.

His win wouldn't come without drama, however, with a puncture and bike change briefly slowing him down at 8km to go, but the 24-year-old was so far ahead that it barely had an effect.

"It was, in the end, perfect teamwork, and we had a really good gameplan in the end," Pogačar said after the finish. "I managed to stay alone until the finish which gives me a big boost for the start of the season.

"It was the plan to attack there. The team put us in a perfect position. It was just as we planned. It was perfect."

Ben Turner (Ineos Grenadiers) would be the next best man at the finish, the 23-year-old Briton outsprinting Tim Wellens to prevent a UAE Team Emirates one-two finish. Another UAE man, Marc Hirschi, led the remains of the chase home for fourth place at 1:19 down.

How it unfolded

The second edition of the Clásica Jáen Paraíso Interior would bring with it more of everything except kilometres – more gravel, more hills, and more star power with Pogačar switching things up to kick off his campaign in Spain.

Six gravel sectors – the final two repeated on the finishing circuit – totalling 42.6km came along with 2,300 metres of climbing crammed into the 178km route from Ubeda to Baeza in a reverse direction of the 2022 parcours.

The first 20km of the race would be taken up by the fight for the day's breakaway, with Andrés Ardila (Burgos-BH), Sergio Samitier (Movistar), Xabier Azparren (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Mathis Le Berre (Arkéa-Samsic), and Mathijs Paasschens (Lotto-Dstny) the lucky quintet to eventually make it out front.

Back in the peloton, UAE and Israel-Premier Tech were the teams taking on the workload, though both were happy to let the break take six minutes after 60km of racing.

It didn't take long for the action to begin as the riders hit the first gravel sectors of the day, with punctures and mechanicals hitting several riders, including Ardila, who was forced out of the break at 90km to go.

The pace, punctures and punishing parcours whittled down the peloton, too, the group blown apart and consisting of barely two-dozen men after the first three sectors. However, more would recover, bringing the peloton up to 40-strong with 60km to go.

In contrast, the breakaway was splintering at the same time, with Le Berre, Azparren and Paasschens all dropping away to leave Samitier alone out front two minutes up the road.

A short-lived counterattack at the 50km to go mark from Mads Würtz Schmidt (Israel-Premier Tech) and Lennart van Eetvelt (Lotto-Dstny) quickly petered out after the Belgian hit the deck. Shortly afterwards, UAE started to push on the front, shattering the peloton once again.

When the dust settled, both literally and figuratively, only eight riders remained in the 'peloton', with Pogačar joined by teammates Wellens and Hirschi as well as Ineos Grenadiers duo Ben Turner and Ben Tulett, plus Andreas Kron (Lotto-Dstny), Lorenzo Rota (Intermarché-Circus-Wanty), and Würtz Schmidt.

The group would stay together for only a handful of kilometres, however. With a whopping 42km left to race, Pogačar decided it was time to blast off, attacking uphill on the fifth gravel sector of the race. Only Tulett was able to respond, though he'd be quickly forced to drop off and let his rival go.

It took just over a kilometre of racing for Pogačar to catch Samitier and put 45 seconds between himself and his erstwhile rivals. To his credit, considering he'd been out front for over 110km at that point, the Spaniard did hold on and take some turns at the front, but he couldn't hang in there for long, dropping back at 36km to go.

As he raced onto the finishing circuits, Pogačar held a minute's advantage over the chase group – teammates Wellens and Hirschi still in there with Turner, Tulett, Kron, Rota, Würtz Schmidt and Samitier.

That gap would only grow as he powered on alone, however. The elastic behind had snapped and at the 20km mark, it was up to 1:30, growing another 30 seconds by the time the riders passed through the finish line at 15km to go.

Behind Pogačar, a larger chase group managed to make it across to the chasers, though even with the leader calmly stopping for a puncture-enforced bike change inside the final 10km they wouldn't get close to him.

There was action in the chase groups at 6km to go, with Wellens and Turner breaking free on the same hill where Pogačar had made his move almost an hour earlier. With no solid response from behind, the pair would do battle for the final podium places, while Pogačar remained a minute up the road heading into the final 3km.

A minute after Pogačar crossed the line, arms raised in anticipation of grabbing the golden olive trophy, Turner and Wellens sprinted home, with the Briton getting the better of his Belgian rival and preventing UAE Team Emirates from closing out the top two steps of the podium.

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