The Ruta Del Sol started today with defending champion Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) claiming the victory at the 7.3km opening prologue. Last of all the starters to set off, Valverde came in ahead of Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Shimano) and team mate Ion Izagirre respectively, to win the stage and take the leaders jersey going into stage 1 tomorrow.
Ignatas Konovalovas was the highest placed finisher for Team MTN-Qhubeka p/b Samsung today. “It was a nice circuit, quite technical with lots of corners. I liked it, I just had to go much faster but I felt ok. I just need to have more power in the legs, and that should come in the next days,” Konovalovas said shortly after finishing his prologue.
Racing continues tomorrow with a 186km stage from Velez Malaga to the finish line in Jaen. Along the route the riders will have to deal with 6 categorized climbs, with the finish being at the top of the category 3 Alto Castillo de Santa Catalina climb.
Vuelta a Andalucia Ruta Ciclista Del Sol (Spain) – (February 19 – 23/UCI 2.1)
Sergio Pardilla (ESP)
Linus Gerdemann (GER)
Daniel Teklehaimanot (ERI)
Jaco Venter (RSA)
Ignatas Konovalovas (LTU)
Andreas Stauff (GER)
Gerald Ciolek (GER)
Staff: Manel Lacambra (Sports Director), Bastian Buffel (Soigneur), Nico Beyens (Soigneur), Daniella Nieri (Mechanic), Jim Bryan (Mechanic), Stevie Christaens (Mechanic)
