Ruta del Sol: Valverde claims opening stage

Movistar's Alejandro Valverde won the first stage of the Ruta del Sol Wednesday in Granada. The 36-year-old Spaniard triumphed in a six-man sprint ahead of Team Sky's Wout Poels and Sebastian Reichenbach (FDJ) at the end of a mountainous 155km day of racing in southern Spain.

Valverde attempted to solo clear of a select group going up and over the final climb of the day, but he adjusted his plan after being caught on the descent, taking a convincing win in the sprint.

"We couldn't have started things off in a better way. For the time being, we've got a stage win - everything that comes after this is a gift for us," Valverde said.

"We knew that Contador would be doing well, and he showed he was willing to fight when his team started to take the reigns of the peloton without asking anyone to help them out. He played his cards and really made the difference, yet we defended ourselves well. When we were the two of us alone at the front, it was complicated to keep pushing because his attacks left no room to breathe. Plus, there was a group with three Sky riders pulling, which made it difficult to escape.

"At the end, I decided to give it a try myself into the last slope and I opened a bit of a gap, but it was difficult to make it grow and finish solo, so I chose to wait for Ion and Alberto, who were coming close behind. I was keeping in mind that I was the fastest into such a field sprint, and at the end it was a good result for us - it's the win that counts here."

Berden De Vries (Roompot - Nederlandse Loterij), Georg Preidler (Team Sunweb), Daniel Turek (Israel Cycling Academy), Florian Senechal (Cofidis, Solutions Crédits), Tosh Van der Sande (Lotto Soudal), Pablo Torres Muiño (Burgos BH) and Kirill Sveshnikov (Gazprom-Rusvelo) formed the day's main early escape group shortly after the peloton set out from Málaga.

The breakers worked their advantage up to around four and half minutes before the bunch began gradually reeling them in. The climber-friendly terrain saw cohesion break down in the lead group, and all of the breakaway riders were caught by the 34km to go mark, as the pack neared the foot of the decisive final climb of the stage.

Trek-Segafredo's Alberto Contador unleashed a blistering attack on the early slopes of the ascent, initially opening up a gap before Valverde caught onto his wheel. Before long, they were joined by Poels, his Sky teammates Diego Rosa and Mikel Landa, Bahrain-Merida's Ion Izagirre and Cannondale-Drapac's Rigoberto Urán.

Landa was the next to strike, but his attack was short-lived. Contador attempted to get clear once again with around 20km left to go, but couldn't shake the others at the head of the race. Then it was Valverde's turn. The Spaniard broke free of the rest of the lead group near the summit and then began to extend his advantage on the descent. Contador soloed away from the others in hot pursuit.

With a little over 10km left to race, Contador made the catch. Then Rosa and Izagirre caught up as well. From there, the four riders mostly eyed each other, allowing Poels and Reichenbach to join with around 3km to go, setting up a six-man battle for the win.

As the pace picked up for the final sprint, Valverde was already at the front of the group with 200 metres to go. Poels tried coming around on his left but could not quite overtake the Movistar rider, allowing Valverde to nab the win at the finish line.

Valverde will take the race lead into a 177.9km stage 2, which runs from Torredonjimeno to the Alto Peña del Águila climb.

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