This Wednesday, the early breakaway was victorious at the end of the 200 kilometer opening stage of the Tour of Andalucia (2.Pro, 16-20/02) between Ubrique and Iznájar. The climbers of Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux, Kobe Goossens and new reinforcement Domenico Pozzovivo, finished in the peloton with favorites, 37 seconds after the winner.
The escapees benefited from an advantage of almost 15 minutes at the end of the second race hour, before the gap melted thanks to Théo Delacroix and Taco van der Hoorn among others. The gap was halved on top of the second categorized climb of the day, 70 kilometer before the finish, and decreased under 3 minutes at the foot of the last difficulty. An advantage of 1 minute before starting the final uphill kilometer was enough for the breakaway to precede a reduced peloton of around fifty riders at the finish.
On Thursday, another difficult finish is waiting for the riders in Alcalá la Real on top of a climb of 3 kilometer with an average gradient of 6 per cent. The last 1000 meter are on unpaved roads with an average gradient of around 11 per cent.
