Moreno wins Vuelta a Burgos opener

Daniel Moreno (Katusha) won the opening stage of the Vuelta a Burgos, covering 135km from Miranda De Ebro to Ojo Guarena and finishing atop a category three climb. The 30-year-old Spaniard was followed across the finish line by Sergio Henao (Sky) in second and Matti Breschel (Rabobank) in third. The first five finishers all crossed the line in the same time, but then splits formed in the peloton due to the uphill finale.

With the victory Moreno also earned the first leader's jersey of the five-day stage race.

A 16-man break formed early in the stage, but their lead never exceeded 2:30. On the attack were Angel Madrazo (Movistar), Ricardo Garcia (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Maciej Paterski (Liquigas-Cannondale), Christian Meier (Orica-GreenEdge), Arnaud Gerard (FDJ-BigMat), Ian Stannard, Juan Antonio Flecha, Danny Pate (all Sky), Aitor Galdos (Caja Rural), Jose Toribio (Andalucia), Tobias Ludvigsson (Argos-Shimano), Jonathan Monsalve (Androni-Venezuela), Paul Poux (Saur-Sojasun), Francesco Meda (Acqua & Sapone), Luis Mas (Burgos Castilla y Leon) and Xavier Florencio (Katusha).

With 21km remaining Madrazo made a solo bid for victory, but was soon brought back by his fellow escapees. Stannard tried his luck with 15km to go and was more successful. While his former breakaway companions were all swept by the field, the Briton managed to stay away until the final kilometre where his breakaway attempt was neutralised by a Katusha-led peloton.

"It was a very fast stage but we were quite calm because we had [Xavier] Florencio in the breakaway, a rider who could win if the chase turned out to be unsuccessful," said Moreno. "In the last kilometer when the group neutralized the breakaway we decided to take the lead: first [Angel] Vicioso, then [Joaquim] Rodriguez imposed their pace for me and I started my sprint with 300 meters to go. I want to thank my teammates, I won quite easily thanks to their work, even if during the sprint a motorbike was in the middle of the route and I had to slow down."

The Spaniard returned to competition following a nearly two-month break since his last race, the Critérium du Dauphiné, and was pleasantly surprised with the day's result.

"I was surprised I felt so good after some time without any competition, but we worked hard during the training camps and this result is the proof we're on the right path," said Moreno. "Maybe I'll suffer a little more on longer, steeper climbs, but for now I'm very satisfied."

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