Valverde doubles up in Ruta del Sol

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It was Team Sky who tried to blow the race apart on the first road stage of the Ruta del Sol, but it was race leader Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) who profited from their work. The Spaniard powered away from an elite group up to the finish in Jaén, opening up a four second gap to Bauke Mollema (Belkin) and Davide Rebellin (CCC Polsat Polkowice).

Richie Porte (Team Sky) was the best finisher of his team, placing fourth in the same time as Mollema and Rebellin, which moved him into second place overall, 19 seconds from Valverde on the general classification.

Luis León Sánchez (Caja Rural) was fifth on the stage, and moved into third overall at 21 seconds.

The Movistar team did the lion's share of the work to control the day's breakaways on a stage with six climbs and a tough finishing kick in Jaén.

Amets Txurruka (Euskadi), Jaco Venter (MTN-Qhubeka), Jesus Ezquerra (ActiveJet), Stephane Poulhies (Cofidis), Tom Van Asbroeck (Topsport Vlaanderen), Francisco Javier Aramendia (Caja Rural), Alexis Guerin (ETIXX), Lennard Hofstede (Rabobank), David Lozano (Novo Nordisk), Nico Sijmens (Wanty-Groupe Gobert) had three minutes on the peloton when the race reached the last category 2 climb with 30km to go, but the group was shattered by an attack by Guerin.

The young Frenchman was joined by the veteran Aramendia, but the move did not last long. Guerin was dropped, and then Aramendia was joined by Venter, Van Asbroeck and Lukasz Owsian (CCC Polsat). All the while, Movistar was slowly chipping away at their advantage, bringing it to just 12 seconds with 10km remaining.

Jakob Fuglsang (Astana) attempted to bridge as the break was in sight, but Movistar upped the pace and brought him back, as well as the rest of the break with 9.7km to race.

Team Sky took over the pace shortly thereafter, attempting to take advantage of their multiple riders in the top 10 on the GC, but the plan backfired.

Bradley Wiggins was the first to be dropped with 3km to go, as Peter Kennaugh, then Geraint Thomas punished the peloton for Porte as the final climb began to bite.

However, Valverde and his lieutenant Jon Izagirre, wearing the green points jersey, were unmovable. As the gradient kicked up in the final meters, Valverde leaped away, leaving the Sky riders in his wake.

Mollema put in a valiant effort to hold on, but could not match the pace of the Spaniard in the short stretch to the line.

Full Results