Ion Izaguirre of
Astana has won the 70th edition of the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana, or Tour of Valencia.
Stage five
of what has been an excellent race in gorgeous weather apart from today when it
was cloudy, took the riders from Paterna to Valencia over a course of 88kms which
was the same course that the women had taken on with Britain’s Alice Barnes
taking a second place.
Ion Izaguirre of Astana had
moved up into the leader’s
yellow jersey after a fourth stage won by British rider Adam Yates and had a lead
of seven seconds from Alejandro
Valverde going into the final
stage.
Van
Poucke (SVB), Alexi Kurbatov (GAZ) and Martin-Sanz broke after ten kilometres and
were joined by AG2R’s Alex Gougeard and got 1.45 away.
Their
lead went out to over two minutes but was down to 1.16 with sixty kilometres to
go.
Ten kilometres
later and the gap was down to forty seconds before they started on the closing
laps with a lead of thirty seconds.
With
twenty-five kilometres to go, the gap was down to 25 seconds and at fifteen
seconds five kilometres later.
The
break was ended with fourteen kilometres remaining.
Jay
Thompson punctured as the pace ramped up and Julien Duval went off the front, only
to be quickly reeled in.
Team
Sky came up with Chris Lawless and Ben Swift to take the bell with 7.5 kilometres
to go. Geraint Thomas put in a good turn on the front with the race leader safely
at the front of the bunch.
There
was a crash taking down a number of riders including Thomas and Lawless.
Matteo
Trentin went but up came Lotto-Jumbo Visma’s Dylan Groenewegen who won the
stage in 1.50.18 ahead of Alexander Kristoff and Matteo Trentin.
Ion
Izaguirre managed to finish and took the overall victory ahead of Valverde and
Bilbao with Dan Martin fourth and Adam Yates eighth.
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