Magnus Cort (Uno-X Mobility) parlayed an extended dash into victory on the opening stage of O Gran Camiño, holding off Efapel’s Santiago Mesa and Giovanni Lonardi (Polti-VisitMalta) to assert the primary chief’s jersey of the UCI 2.1 stage race.
The Dane narrowly prevented a crash within the remaining kilometre when he hit an impediment on the street and bumped into one other rider, however stored his cool on the wheels earlier than hitting out with 250 metres to go.
Mesa had sufficient energy to attract alongside however not sufficient endurance to get previous the skilled 32-year-old, who added a second stage win in O Gran Camiño to his palmares.
Cort heads into stage 2 with a lead of 4 seconds over Mesa and 6 seconds on Lonardi within the common classification.
How it unfolded
The 2025 version of O Gran Camiño kicked off with a 189.7-kilometre stage from Maia to Matosinhos. The day’s breakaway was shaped within the first kilometres, with six riders: Filippo Turconi (VF Group-Bardiani-CSF Faizanè), Ander Okamika (Burgos Burpellet BH), Artem Nych and Victor Martínez (Anicolor Tien-21), Mauricio Moreira (Efapel) and Pau Llaneras (Illes Balears Arabay).
The escapees may hardly achieve greater than two minutes on the peloton, with Turconi taking out the primary KOM on Alto de Feitos at kilometre 51.3 and the intermediate dash in Barroselas at kilometre 66.8. The hole was right down to lower than a minute earlier than the ultimate KOM, with Martínez, Turconi and Llaneras shedding contact because the peloton closed in.
Okamika claimed the utmost factors atop the Alto Sao Félix with 46km to go and the intermediate dash bonus simply past it, however the hole was falling quickly underneath the impetus of VF Group-Bardiani and Groupama-FDJ. The bunch lastly closed down the remaining three riders with 40.4km to go because of a surge from Israel-Premier Tech.
Immediately VF Group-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè’s Filippo Magli attacked and was joined by Davide Piganzoli (Polti-VisitMalta) and Pau Martí (Israel-Premier Tech). The transfer did not final lengthy, however the assaults continued as Alvaro Sagrado (Illes Balears Arabay) shot out of the bunch in a technical part of the course and the peloton let him go.
On a small climb, Martin Marcellusi (VF Group-Bardiani-CSF Faizanè) attacked to bridge to Sagrado. Then, Jan Castellon (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) went on the assault in addition to Sagrado loved a minute’s benefit on the primary bunch and 35 seconds on Marcellusi.
Castellon’s effort was short-lived however as Sagrado powered on with a 1:15 lead with 30km to go, Marcellusi was closing the hole. He lastly joined Sagrado with 27.7km to go and the pair set out making an attempt to foil the chase.
The duo put in an excellent effort because the WorldTour groups took a again seat within the chase to the native Continental groups, with their lead solely dipping underneath one minute with 18.4km remaining.
However, Groupama-FDJ added top-level pace to the chase inside 15km to go, halving the duo’s benefit. With 10.5km to go, Sagrado misplaced contact with Marcellusi up entrance and behind, Kern Pharma’s GC chief Urko Berrade punctured, and regardless of his group sending riders again to chase, the officers barraged them.
Soudal-QuickStep got here ahead within the remaining 10km to steer the chase over the cobbles, bringing Marcellusi’s hole underneath 10 seconds over the course of a kilometre. They swept previous Sagrado with 8.4km to go, then set off in pursuit of the Italian. That effort was concluded with 5.8km to go and as soon as Marcellusi was caught, Uno-X Mobility hit the wind for his or her sprinter.
The peloton may see Berrade’s group chasing at practically a minute in the wrong way as they reversed course on the divided freeway with Uno-X Mobility and Polti-VisitMalta controlling the entrance heading into the ultimate kilometre.
Polti began the lead-out because the race headed alongside the scenic coastal street, however Cort powered to the entrance early, holding off the problem from Mesa.
Results
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