Magnus Cort (Uno-X Mobility) parlayed an extended dash into victory at the opening level of O Gran Camiño, maintaining off Efapel’s Santiago Mesa and Giovanni Lonardi (Polti-VisitMalta) to say the primary chief’s jersey of the UCI 2.1 level race.
The Dane narrowly have shyed away from a crash within the ultimate kilometre when he hit a drawback at the street and bumped into every other rider, however saved his cool at the wheels sooner than hitting out with 250 metres to move.
Mesa had sufficient energy to attract along however now not sufficient staying power to get previous the skilled 32-year-old, who added a 2d level win in O Gran Camiño to his palmares.
Cort heads into level 2 with a lead of 4 seconds over Mesa and 6 seconds on Lonardi within the normal classification.
The way it opened up
The 2025 version of O Gran Camiño kicked off with a 189.7-kilometre level from Maia to Matosinhos. The day’s breakaway was once shaped within the first kilometres, with six riders: Filippo Turconi (VF Crew-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 just rarely achieve greater than two mins at the peloton, with Turconi eliminating the primary KOM on Alto de Feitos at kilometre 51.3 and the intermediate dash in Barroselas at kilometre 66.8. The space was once all the way down to lower than a minute sooner than the overall KOM, with Martínez, Turconi and Llaneras dropping touch because the peloton closed in.
Okamika claimed the utmost issues atop the Alto Sao Félix with 46km to move and the intermediate dash bonus simply past it, however the hole was once falling swiftly underneath the impetus of VF Crew-Bardiani and Groupama-FDJ. The bunch in any case closed down the remainder 3 riders with 40.4km to move due to a surge from Israel-Premier Tech.
Straight away VF Crew-Bardiani CSF-Faizanè’s Filippo Magli attacked and was once joined by way of Davide Piganzoli (Polti-VisitMalta) and Pau Martí (Israel-Premier Tech). The transfer did not remaining lengthy, however the assaults persisted as Alvaro Sagrado (Illes Balears Arabay) shot out of the bunch in a technical segment of the direction and the peloton let him pass.
On a small climb, Martin Marcellusi (VF Crew-Bardiani-CSF Faizanè) attacked to bridge to Sagrado. Then, Jan Castellon (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) went at the assault in addition to Sagrado loved a minute’s benefit at the primary bunch and 35 seconds on Marcellusi.
Castellon’s effort was once short-lived however as Sagrado powered on with a 1:15 lead with 30km to move, Marcellusi was once ultimate the distance. He in any case joined Sagrado with 27.7km to move and the pair set out looking to foil the chase.
The duo installed a super effort because the WorldTour groups took a again seat within the chase to the native Continental groups, with their lead simplest dipping underneath one minute with 18.4km final.
Then again, Groupama-FDJ added top-level pace to the chase inside of 15km to move, halving the duo’s benefit. With 10.5km to move, Sagrado misplaced contact with Marcellusi up entrance and in the back of, Kern Pharma’s GC chief Urko Berrade punctured, and in spite of his crew sending riders again to chase, the officers barraged them.
Soudal-QuickStep got here ahead within the ultimate 10km to guide the chase over the cobbles, bringing Marcellusi’s hole underneath 10 seconds over the process a kilometre. They swept previous Sagrado with 8.4km to move, then spark off in pursuit of the Italian. That effort was once concluded with 5.8km to move and as soon as Marcellusi was once stuck, Uno-X Mobility hit the wind for his or her sprinter.
The peloton may just see Berrade’s crew chasing at just about a minute in the wrong way as they reversed direction at the divided freeway with Uno-X Mobility and Polti-VisitMalta controlling the entrance heading into the overall kilometre.
Polti began the lead-out because the race headed alongside the scenic coastal street, however Cort powered to the entrance early, maintaining off the problem from Mesa.
Effects
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