Pablo García is the new leader of Vuelta a Extremadura

The first stage of the Vuelta a Extremadura started from Badajoz as the most comfortable of the three that make up the race. An attack 40 kilometres from the finish in the middle of the disorder of the bunch allowed Pablo García to reach the finish line with the minimum advantage to win the stage and wear the leader’s jersey.

During the first kilometres of the day, different breakaways and attacks tried to overtake the main group, but none of the attempts managed to open up a big gap. With 60 kilometres to go and with the last special sprint of the day between, Daniel Tenorio was at the head of the bunch trying to infiltrate on one of these movements. With 42 kilometres to go was the moment when, given the disarray of the big group, Pablo García attacked and was able to open up a solo advantage.

His gap was around two minutes, while the peloton was calm. The kilometres were falling and so was García’s gap. The peloton pressed from behind, but the reaction came too late. Finally, with only a few seconds of advantage, García reached the finish line alone, raising his arms and taking the stage victory and the leader’s jersey.

After reaching the finish line, Pablo García explained how his attack and subsequent victory came: “it was a small mistake that led me to a great victory”. He also told the microphones after the finish that the attack was out of the pre-stage plans: “I asked on the radio if they wanted me to stop because the objective is to win the overall classification. I immediately got two minutes and it was in the last 10 kilometres that I began to see that victory was possible. At the beginning I didn’t believe that I was going alone, but once I got that advantage I decided to give everything”.