Michael Matthews (Jayco AlUla) was the fastest in the uphill sprint to win Ruta de la Cerámica-Gran Premio Castellón on Sunday. The Australian powered up the short climb to take the win ahead of Pierre Gautherat (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) and Alex Aranburu (Movistar) in Onda.
“It was a beautiful day today. The weather was amazing, and the crowd here in Spain always gives me such a nice feeling. I’ve had a lot of my nice victories in Spain, and to be the first winner here in this race is really special," Matthews said in a post-race interview.
"I think the first lap we came through [the finish] was actually harder, there was a lot of stress because everyone knew the main climb in the final was coming up two kilometres after the finish line, so there was a lot of stress and then it was full gas from there all the way to the finish."
It was the second victory in as many days for Jayco AlUla as Dylan Groenewegen won the previous day's Clàssica Comunitat Valenciana 1969.
"I think yesterday we worked amazing as a team, and today we took it up from the start, we took the responsibility, and we had confidence in ourselves to deliver the result. Full credit to the guys who rode all day today and yesterday for me and for Dylan, it shows that the hard work pays off," Matthews said.
The peloton lined up to tackle 173.9km at the first edition of the Ruta de la Cerámica-Gran Premio Castellón. The route began in Castellón and covered two categorized ascents at Alto de la Coma (2km at 7%) and Alto de Sierra Engarceran (13km at 3.7%) and passed through three intermediate sprints before a challenging shorter finishing circuit in Onda.
The circuit included the Collado de Ayodar (5km at 2%) climb and a short climb to the finish line.
Oier Lazkano (Movistar) led over the Alto de la Coma, position just four kilometres into the race.
Shortly after, the day's breakaway emerged with Jelle Vermoote (Bingoal WB), Paul Hennequin (Nice Métropole Côte d'Azur) and Duarte Marivoet (UAE Team Emirates), with the trip eventually gaining more than three minutes on the field.
The three crested the second climb of the day, Alto de Sierra Engarceran, with Vermoote taking the full six points over the top.
As Movistar set the pace at the front of the peloton, the gap to the breakaway began to fall to 2:20 inside 60km.
Vermoote, Hennequin and Marivoet reached Onda and passed through the steep uphill finish line for the start of the final shorter circuit. Vermoote jumped ahead as Hennequin and Marivoet were reeled back into the field. His solo efforts didn't last long, and he, too, was back in the bunch with 25km to go.
Movistar, Cofidis and Euskaltel-Euskadi set the pace on the final circuit as they raced toward the third categorized ascent, Collado de Ayodar. Late-race attacks came from Igor Arrieta (UAE Team Emirates) and Alex Baudin (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), but both were brought back within two kilometres of the finish.
Movistar led the reduced field into the final kilometre, but it was Matthews who was strongest on the final climb to the finish line.
Results
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