On the opening stage of the 62nd edition of the Spanish race, the Italian rider powered ahead in the final sprint and claimed his first victory since joining Tinkoff in 2013. To round off the team’s great day, Oscar Gatto grabbed fourth position. Tomorrow, Bennati will wear the red jersey of GC leader.
A total of 164 riders took to the start of the 165.2km-long first stage, that took the peloton from Almonaster la Real to Seville. The race set off from the sierras of northwestern Andalucía with three third-category climbs in the first 50 km.
A breakaway of four riders marked the stage, managing to build an advantage that peaked at 8 minutes, while several teams leading the peloton kept the race under control. With 2 km to go the escapees were brought back in the group which arrived jointly together in the final bunch sprint in the Andalusian capital. In preparation for the finish, the great work of the Tinkoff squad took Daniele Bennati in the front positions of the group, allowing him to start sprinting at 300 meters from the finish line and grab thus his first victory in 2016 and the first since joining Tinkoff in 2013.
“For quite a while now, Bennati is going impressively well, therefore today we relied on him, and in the end the stage turned out to be as we had planned,” stated Sport Director Bruno Cenghialta. “We are extremely happy that Daniele kind of unlocked himself. It was a wonderful sprint, we tried to get into the final kilometer in the right position and so it went well.”
“The first part of the stage, on the other hand, was quite challenging, although it’s quite usual for this type of undulating stages, with a breakaway which is pretty much controlled before you get to the sprint,” concluded Cenghialta.
Daniele Bennati summed up his amazing win: “Today we set out with the goal to do the sprint with me. Obviously, quite often the races turn out to be different than what you expect, so the breakaway took everyone by surprise. It wasn’t our call to bring back the escapees, because there were other teams which were more interested in that. As we had two riders in the GC, I never expected our teammates would pull and chase the breakaway, and luckily other teams did that job.”
“Going into the finale my teammates were awesome. Furthermore, with 10 km to go I even had a puncture in my front wheel and my situation got even more complicated. However, luckily, thanks to my good condition I was able to get back in. Then Trusov did an impressive job, taking me back to the front but it wasn’t easy as it was a very fast-paced race, at about 60 km/h. McCarthy and Gatto were close to me in the finale and gave me a chance to sprint at the right time and win. Anyway, I’d really like to thank wholeheartedly all my teammates. This is the most important thing to me”, added Bennati.
“Tomorrow there’s a climb at about 25 km from the finish where there is going to be a strong selection, because it’s a pretty tough one. We expect to see a finale with a bunch group of 30 riders, maybe even 40. That will depend on the condition of the other teams”, concluded Cenghialta.
The second stage that will start at Palomares del Río and finish in Córdoba.
