In an exciting opening stage in Valencia, the Bardiani duo outshined both the breakaway riders and the main peloton!

Castellón, that has already been involved in a race this year, right? Indeed, because last Sunday marked the first edition of the Ruta de la Céramica - Gran Premio Castellón, which was ultimately won by Michael Matthews of Jayco AlUla. The Aussie also started in the opening stage of the Tour of Valencia on Wednesday, although he stated before the start that he had been suffering from a cold last week.

Well, the peloton set off just after midday for a 167-kilometer stage in the province of Valencia, where many teams also organize their winter camps. Those roads are very familiar, and thus seven riders were willing to join the early breakaway of the day: Jetse Bol (Burgos-BH) and Molenaar (Illes Balears) were the Dutch riders present, along with Gorka Sorarrain (Caja Rural), Tonelli, Tarozzi (Bardiani), Fransisco Munoz (Polti-Kometa), and Inigo Elosegui (Equipo Kern Pharma).

This septet was generously given a nine-minute head start by the peloton, where cooperation seemed somewhat lacking. However, with the Desert de la Palmes climb (7.7 km at 5.1%, peaking fifteen kilometers from the finish) still to come, the peloton had a strategy up their sleeve. As they approached the base of this decisive climb, teams BORA-hansgrohe, UAE-Team Emirates, Lidl-Trek, Bingoal-WB, Q36.5, Bahrain Victorious, and Euskaltel-Euskadi finally united, significantly cutting down the breakaway's lead to three minutes at the start of the climb.

The leaders sensed the pressure and it immediately caused a split, with the Bardiani duo of Tonelli and Tarozzi instigating the move. They powered ahead, miraculously maintaining a three-minute lead for a long time. Molenaar and Bol, trailing behind, joined forces, but the Italian duo proved to be too strong. They reached the summit over two minutes ahead of the main group, while Molenaar was half a minute behind.

Bahrain Victorious tried everything to minimize the gap, eventually sending downhill specialist Matej Mohoric ahead in the descent. However, even for the Slovenian, bridging up to the Italian leaders was an impossible task, allowing Bardiani-CSF to celebrate a fantastic victory. There was a moment of uncertainty when the leading pair took a wrong turn in the final kilometer. However, Tarozzi waited for Tonelli, allowing his teammate to take the win, while Lazkano surged past Molenaar. Jonathan Milan won the sprint from the peloton, despite the climb near the end.