procycling

Q. Simmons (always impressive but always a bit short) animated a small breakaway (Aular stayed with him the longest) for 35 km, joining the early breakaway after a move initiated by a Caja Rural, and dropping it; before the final peloton acceleration and Ayuso lauching Del Toro 18 km from the line. Cofidis had great hopes for Aranburu, so they had helped UAE chasing the breakaways. After Del Toro's attack, Aranburu tried to follow but never actually managed, his tiny group (of 4?) never managed to catch the lone Del Toro up; he was beaten by Ayuso on the final sprint on the little hill.

A rather suspenseful (Del Toro never really got much more than 20 seconds over his chasers) and relatively hectic race, as usual there. There is always a balance between climbs, wide roads, and a final climb much smaller than the other ones, which causes good fights between the breakaway(s) and the peloton and then between smaller groups, and makes the victory uncertain until the last minute (well, this time, being solo, Del Toro would have needed to fail badly in the last climb, but that's something that may happen).

In a way, it reminds me of the Boucles Drôme-Ardèche in the beginning of the season. Ayuso had lost the first race, Ardèche (because of following a bad direction in the last km), but on the next day UAE and he left no chance to their opponents in the Drôme race, as he won after a 40 km solo.

I was wondering what your opinion was on that race. Both UAE riders seemed quite strong on the day yet Ciccone won relatively easily in the end. In fact, the commentator on the stream I was watching said with about 40 km to go something like "no one else other than Del Toro is winning today" because he and UAE were looking so strong at that stage.