Frenchman with second victory of the season
Jonathan Hivert sprinted to victory in the Klasika Primavera, beating Movistar’s David López and Saxo Bank-SunGard’s Nick Nuyens. The hilly final of the race had several break attempts as a consequence in the active final, with Hivert making his move at the right moment. It was Hivert’s second victory of the season, after already prevailing in stage two of the Vuelta a Andalucia.
Despite several attempts from small and large groups to initiate a break, the most interesting news in the first hour of the race was the abandoning of Euskaltel-Euskadi’s Egoi Martínez, with just a bit more than 50 kilometers ridden. The average speed in the opening hour was 47 km/h, thanks to the various moves.
The rain started to come down, which finally cooled off the peloton and allowed Alexander Ryabkin (Caja Rural), Mikel Bizkarra (Orbea), Jesús Rosendo (Andalucía Caja Granada) and Ricardo Vilela (Onda) to ride clear at kilometer 85. Within ten kilometers the gap was 3’20, which was the maximum they gained.
The first of three ascents of the Muniketas-Montecalvo (kilometer 106) reduced the gap to just over two minutes and also broke the front group apart. Rosendo and Bizkarra crested the top 35 seconds ahead of Ryabkin and Vilela. On the first time up the Autzagane, Rosendo and Bizkarra were 1’15 ahead of the peloton, which swallowed the other breakaway riders in the descent.
The efforts from Rosendo and Bizkarra were ended by the peloton just before the summit when they climbed up the Muniketas-Montecalvo for the second time. Shortly thereafter, a dangerous five-man break developed, with Pablo Lastras, Amets Txurruka, Marcos García, Sergey Shilov, and Diego Gallego. Shilov was the only one to slip into a subsequent nine-man move, which had 30 seconds 22 kilometers from the line.
Under Movistar’s efforts, the break was brought back 12 kilometers from the finish. A solo try by Igor Antón was eliminated as well as a last-minute try by Nick Nuyens. But the furious pace in the end had left only 12 riders left to race for the stage victory.