Evenepoel secures overall win in Valencia, final stage goes to breakaway rider García Pierna
Remco Evenepoel has won the Tour of Valencia. On the final day of the race, his yellow leader's jersey remained unthreatened. The last stage was won by Raúl García Pierna. The Spaniard took the sprint from the breakaway group, which after a hectic finale narrowly avoided being caught by the peloton.
The fifth and final stage of the Tour of Valencia covered just 94 kilometers from Bétera to Valencia. Midway through the race, the tough climb of Port del Garbí loomed. This climb of nearly six kilometers, with an average gradient just under 9% and sections up to 18%, was a real challenge. However, the summit was still 45 kilometers from the finish, so a long flat finale followed. Remco Evenepoel started the final stage with a comfortable lead.
Large breakaway group
The (strong) sprinters seemed to have a good chance for a stage win, but the attackers clearly sensed their opportunity as well. Half the peloton wanted to be in the early break. Eventually, a breakaway of no less than 21 riders formed. Among them were Julien Bernard, Andrew August, Jasper Schoofs, Tom Van Asbroeck, and King of the Mountains jersey holder Danny van der Tuuk. The Dutch rider was already certain of the overall win in the mountains classification.
Regarding the general classification, Mattia Bais was the highest-placed rider in the group up front. The Italian from Polti VisitMalta started the stage just under three minutes behind leader Evenepoel. Although Bais did not pose a major threat to the yellow jersey, Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe did not give the attackers much leeway. The gap hovered between one and two minutes for a long time.
Breakaway group thins out
Once on the Port del Garbí, the breakaway splintered following an attack from Raúl García Pierna. The first to join him was Adrià Pericas. On the climb, Bernard, August, Jasper Schoofs (Soudal Quick-Step), Emil Herzog (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe), and Diego Uriarte (Equipo Kern Pharma) also followed. Then Kim Heiduk (INEOS Grenadiers) and Sven Erik Bystrøm (Uno-X Mobility) returned to the group. Herzog then tried a solo move but was reeled back in. Thus, nine riders headed towards Valencia.
Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe led the peloton, but the German team showed no intention of closing the gap. There was no significant threat to Evenepoel, and with Herzog up front, they still had a man in the lead group. Moreover, no other team took the initiative to lead the chase. Would the nine escapees contest the stage win?
Breakaway riders or sprinters?
With ten kilometers to go, things looked good for the break, but the situation changed quickly after that. August, who had done much of the work at the front because he had the fast Heiduk with him, crashed, and the peloton, spurred on by UAE Emirates, accelerated sharply. The chase group was going so fast that it briefly split into two parts.
Bernard did not want to wait for the regrouping, and launched an attack. The Frenchman entered a corner at high speed and... slipped. Heiduk went over him, while the rest stayed upright. This took two more riders out of contention. The six remaining breakaway riders still had a nice lead but began watching each other. Meanwhile, INEOS Grenadiers, having lost both August and Heiduk upfront, now started driving the pace in the peloton. Everything was still possible.
In the end, however, the peloton arrived too late. The breakaway riders were allowed to contest the sprint for the victory. In that sprint, García Pierna took the win. He relegated Herzog and Schoofs to second and third place.
