Ruta del Sol: Herregodts wins opening stage

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It was a breakaway day on the opening stage of the Vuelta a Andaulcia Ruta del Sol, with Rune Herregodts (Sport Vlaanderen Baloise) beating his companions to the top of the uphill finish in Iznájar shortly before a charging peloton. 

What had started out as an eight-man escape was allowed an advantage of a quarter of an hour in the early phases of the lightly hilly opener, and they reached Iznájar with 90 seconds a ticket to fight for stage honours on the steep slopes of the final 1500 metres. 

Herregodts, who had teammate Lindsay De Vylder in the break and had launched earlier attacks, emerged the strongest as the six remaining breakaway riders opened up in the final 150 metres.

There was a dramatic coming-together with Stephen Bassett (Human Powered Health), who lost momentum in the shoulder-to-shoulder collision and trailed across the line for second place. Ander Okamika (Burgos-BH), who was the first to kick for the line, rounded out the. podium. 

Alessandro Covi (UAE Team Emirates) stole a few seconds on the bunch with an attack on the final climb and crossed the line in seventh place at 31 seconds, with the overall contenders all finishing safely in the bunch several seconds later.

“It was a long stage and we went away with wight guys, which was ideal,” Herregodts said. “We didn’t ride too hard at the start and the peloton gave us a good margin. I told the guys ‘easy easy, then in the last 100km we go all-out’ because with eight, they have to put a lot of riders on the front to chase us down. The cooperation was great, nobody skipped turns, and that way you can fo far. 

“This is a very important victory for myself and the team. It’s a prestigious race with a good field. It was great to be with two in the break, it was a real team effort. We can be very happy.”

Herregodts, a 23-year-old Belgian, pulled on the first yellow leader’s jersey of the five-stage race. Given the extent of the time gaps, with 15 minutes by the top of the early first-category climb and six minutes still with 30km to go, it had looked like the breakaway riders might inadvertently be riding into overall contention, but a concerted push from several teams in the final 25km limited the damage to within a minute by the line. 

“I didn’t come here with ambitions for GC, so I just want to enjoy this,” Herregodts added. “I’ll try and hold onto the jersey for as long as possible but our race is already a great success and everything that comes now is a bonus.”

How it unfolded

The opening stage of the 68th edition of the Ruta del Sol took the riders on a long 200km journey from Ubrique in the Sierra de Grazalema and east along the Andalusian plains to Iznájar, towards Granada. 

There was a rude awakening in the Sierra in the form of the category-1 Puerto del Boyar - 14.6km at 5.4 per cent - followed towards the half-way mark by the gentler Puerto de Algámitas. The second half of the parcours was largely flat, but the steep final haul to the line was preceded by the cat-3 Alto La Parilla - 7.8km at 3.3 per cent - which topped out 12km from the finish. 

The breakaway went early and contained eight riders: Herregodts, Bassett, Okamika, Dy Vylder, Mark Christian (Eolo-Kometa), Xabier Isasa (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Vojtech Repa (Kern Pharma), Alvaro Cuadros (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA). They were immediately let off the leash and there was almost a go-slow in the peloton as they trudged through the early kilometres and allowed the gap to reach 10 minutes in the blink of an eye. 

Before they knew it, the breakaway were descending down from the Puerto del Boyar with a lead of nearly 15 minutes and already decent hopes of pulling off an upset. 

Cuadros was the first to the top of the Puerto del Boyar and second behind Isasa to the top of the Algámitas to put himself in the mountains classification for Thursday’s stage, while Bassett swept the intermediate sprints. 

After descending Algámtias down to the half-way mark, their advantage had already been cut in half, with Bahrain Victorious, AG2R Citroën, and Intemarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux all prominent in reducing the arrears. However, as Herregodts explained, the break had been riding within themselves up to that point and were only just about to open the taps. 

Some 30km later, they still had nearly seven minutes in hand, and after another 40km, with just 30km to the finish, they still had nearly six minutes. That part of the stage was where the breakaway nailed down their chances for victory, although it would still prove a nailbiting run-in. 

On the approach to the final categorised climb, Bora-Hansgrohe, Movistar, and BikeExchange-Jayco all combined to set a strong pace, while the break lost numbers up front with Cuadros and Repa dropped. The remaining six stayed together on the climb but started to ship time as BikeExchange-Jayco took control behind. 

They reached the top - where Christian and Dy Vylder were briefly tailed off - with a lead of 2:15 - still enough on what was a largely downhill run into town. 

The descent was interrupted by a plateau and kick up, where Sport Vlaanderen Baloise looked to play the numbers game and sent Herregodts on the attack twice. Neither move split the break definitively but it did reveal who was strongest, with Christian and Dy Vylder clearly struggling to respond. They regrouped for the final dip into town, and swung right with 1.5km to go to take on the stiff seven per cent twisting incline towards the town centre and the line. 

With a lead of 1:20, they started steadily, with Okamika issuing the first real dig under the flamme rouge. Again, Christian and De Vylder were dropped but again they came back as the rest slowed and readied themselves to offload one final bullet in sight of the line. Okamika struck out first, but Herregodts and Bassett were quick to respond. The Belgian went left around Okamika, the American went right, and they both came back together in the middle of the road, bumping shoulders but staying upright. 

While the impact took the wind out of Bassett’s sails, Herregodts pushed on and finished the final few pedal strokes to take him to the line for a famous win. While all this was happening, the peloton hit the final climb at a far higher speed, with Zdenek Štybar (QuickStep-AlphaVinyl) launching an initial dig before Covi managed to make something stick. The Italian finished six seconds clear, with Gonzalo Serrano (Movistar) and Matteo Trentin (UAE Team Emirates) second and third from the bunch.