Hofland wins final Ruta del Sol stage

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A shrewd sense of positioning and a powerful sprint finish carried Moreno Hofland (Belkin) to victory on the final stage of the Ruta del Sol in Fuengirola, while Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) sealed his third overall win in as many years in Andalucia.

When Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Shimano), the last survivor of the day’s early break, was swept up with 5 kilometres to race, the stage seemed set for a mass finish, but there was still one late twist in store in southern Spain.

Shortly after Dumoulin was caught, a determined delegation from the Topsport Vlaanderen-Baloise team took up the reins at the front of the peloton in a bid to set up Kenneth Van Bilsen for the sprint. The Belgian squad led the race into its final obstacle, a roundabout with a shade under two kilometres to go, and when they came out the other side, they were at the head of a group of six riders that had detached itself from the front of peloton, including the ever-alert Hofland.

The trio of Topsport riders led under the red kite, as first Edward Theuns and then Tom Van Asbroeck surged to the front, but when they swung off with 400 metres to race, Van Bilsen was left with two faster men on his wheel.

Hofland and Nikias Arndt (Giant-Shimano) duly swarmed past Van Bilsen within sight of the line. It was soon apparent that Hofland had an extra gear, however, and the Dutchman quickly opened up an insurmountable gap to claim stage victory ahead of Arndt and the three Topsport riders.

“This is very important for me,” Hofland said afterwards. “I won the Tour of Hainan last year but this is my first victory in Europe so it means a lot.”

The 22-year-old Hofland is part of an impressive stable of fast finishers at the Belkin team, and he had demonstrated his ability with third place on the previous day’s bunch sprint in Seville. His Belkin team showed its faith in him on Sunday by working to pull back Dumoulin in the finale, with Lars Petter Nordhaug particularly impressive.

“Dumoulin’s a strong guy, so that’s why needed two guys to pull on the front,” Hofland said. “The plan was to have someone in the early break and then gamble on the sprint. When everything came together, I had help from my team for the sprint.”

Indeed, Hofland’s Belkin teammate Laurens ten Dam was part of the day’s early break, which formed on the 1st category climb of the Puerto del Boyar, and also featured Adrian Honkisz (CCC-Polsat), Amets Txurruka (Caja Rural-RGA), Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Shimano), Jakob Fuglsang (Astana), Linus Gerdemann (MTN-Qhubeka), Tim Wellens (Lotto), Javier Megías (Novo Nordisk) and Julian Arredondo (Trek).

The presence of Txurruka, who was just 2:50 off Valverde’s red jersey, meant that Movistar kept close tabs on the break, never allowing it to gain more than three minutes. As the gap dwindled to 1:30 with a 35 kilometres left to race, and with the day’s climbing behind them, the unity of the group began to fragment, with Arredondo the first to break the détente.

Frustrated by the lack of cohesion, Dumoulin made two attempts to go clear, first with Fuglsang and then when he caught and passed Megías. Rather than await reinforcements, Dumoulin opted to go it alone from 30 kilometres out, and the Dutch strongman even succeeded in stretching his lead back out to two minutes at one point.

As Dumoulin was no threat to Valverde’s overall lead, Movistar showed little inclination to chase him down, and it was not until Belkin hit the front that his advantage began to fall. Even so, Dumoulin was resolute up front, and made light work of the final, uncategorised climb out of Coin, though eventually his efforts would take their toll.

With 12 kilometres to go, Dumoulin still had 45 seconds over the bunch, but a counter-attack from Paolo Tiralongo (Astana) only served to encourage the chase efforts still further. 7 kilometres from the finish, Astana’s Alexey Lutsenko managed to power away from the bunch and bridge across to Dumoulin, but the Kazakh’s support was too late to help Dumoulin. By then, he was just ten seconds clear of the peloton, and they would be swept up inside the final five kilometres.

While Valverde missed the final, decisive split that decided the stage honours, he was sharp enough to finish 10th on the stage and even slightly extend his final overall lead. He finished the race 26 seconds up on Richie Porte (Sky) and 28 ahead of Luis Leon Sanchez (Caja Rural).

Valverde has now won the Ruta del Sol in each of the three seasons since his return from suspension following his belated Operacion Puerto ban. His haul of three stage wins in the 2014 edition, however, suggests that this could be his richest vein of early-season form for many years.

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