The American cyclist of the UAE Team Brandon McNulty got the 25th edition of the Miguel Induráin Laboral Kutxa Grand Prize with a time of 4:55:48 after beating the Belgian in the final stage Maxim Van Gils (Lotto) and the British Oscar Onley (Team dsm-firmenich PostNL).
With a route of almost 200 kilometers, the historic Estella event hosts 22 teams on its starting line on the occasion of its silver anniversary. The departure took place without incident at 12:00 from the Plaza de los Fueros in the town of Navarrese.
The 11 World Tour teams monopolize all the spotlights. Arkéa, Astana, Bora, Cofidis, Decathlon, DSM, EF Education, Jayco, Lidl, Movistar, UAE are taking the event seriously, with Ion Izagirre (Cofidis) as the current champion.
When a quarter of the test ended, seven cyclists escaped from the peloton, with Javier Serrano (Polti Kometa) leading the rest of the race. It is kilometer 72 and the difference is more than 7 minutes.
Arrived at the top of Eraul (2nd cat), Xabi Azparren (Pro Team), Txomin Juaristi (Euskaltel) and the Uruguayan Antonio Fagundez (Burgos) They laid the first stone to be noticed. The platoon united with 4 minutes from breakaway.
At 152 kilometers, Juaristi and Fagundez opened the gap to themselves. The weather respected the race until with 40 kilometers to go, the waterspout started, making the day difficult for the competitors. The danger of wet asphalt precipitated falls going up to Irache.
Seven runners ventured to open the gap as time ran out. Twenty kilometers to the finish line and the Frenchman Nans Peters (Decathlon), the Ecuadorian Jefferson Cepeda (EF Education) and Italian Andrea Bagioli (Lidl) is busy with a new guest, Jon Barrenetxea (Movistar).
The Eraul pass (3.9 kilometers with an average slope of 5.1%) is approached for the last time before the last 10 kilometers. The Russian Pavel Sivakov (UAE) wanted to make a change without the rest of the team seeing the real danger from it.
Ion Izagirre He stayed bent over most of the day to gain muscle at the end. Stephen Williams (Israel) also joined the party. While passing through Abárzuza, the American Brandon McNulty (UAE) his quality to set a good pace of eleven seconds difference, which increased.
It seems that everyone is in favor of McNulty, but the Belgian Maxim Van Gils (Lotto) picked the perfect moment to deliver a seemingly certain blow on the final climb and take the lead.
In the final stage, McNulty regained his position in a brutal sprint to beat Van Gils and thus take a very close and exciting finish.
Source: La Verdad
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