UAE and Astana dominate, but Christen surprises favorites and further boosts dream start Q36.5

The Tour of Murcia is the first in a series of one-day races in Spain, with the GP Almeria (Sunday) and Clasica Jaén (Monday) also on the list. Wout van Aert will also start the latter race, but he—like his team Visma | Lease a Bike—was not yet in Murcia on Saturday.

Never mind, there were still plenty of good guys present. In the first hours of the race, it was up to Joel Penuela, Samuel Fernandez (Caja Rural), José Luis Faura (Burgos BH), Ibai Azanza (Equipo Kern Pharma), and Filippo D'Aiuto of Petrolike. The peloton did not get scared so they allowed them some space.

Ultimately, the Alto Collado Bermejo (7.3 kilometers at 6.9 percent) would leave its mark on the race, and so it happened. UAE-Emirates XRG pushed the pace to the max and managed to distance themselves from Tim Wellens and Isaac del Toro. Teams such as Decathlon AG2R and XDS Astana were pushed back, but they turned the tables with eighty kilometers to go.

In the aftermath of the challenging climb, things were getting hectic. A strong breakaway group of about twenty men emerged, including the men from the UAE Team Emirates - XRG and gentlemen such as Clément Champoussin and Aurélien Paret-Peintre, for whom their aforementioned teams had worked so hard. However, those two could not stay away when four riders broke away from the rest of the pack. Wellens was joined by Clément Berthet (Decathlon), Simone Velasco (XDS Astana), and Eric Antonio Fagúndez (Burgos Burpellet BH). They quickly extended their lead to almost two minutes, but the peloton behind them, which had grown a little, was quickly catching up.

Movistar and Q36.5 Pro Cycling kept up the pace, and the lead of the front group disappeared in a flash. Wellens broke away from his fellow escapees at the start of the decisive Alto Cresta del Gallo climb. But the peloton was not far behind. The peloton broke up on the slopes of the last hill. On the steepest stretches, Christian Scaroni jumped towards the lone Belgian. The Italian could not drop his fellow escape artist, and the second group was not far behind either. After the technical descent, Wellens decided not to take over, and so it became an exciting finale.

The chasers caught up to the two with seven kilometers to go. It was not over because Paret-Peintre still had his domestique, Jordan Labrosse. But UAE and Astana all had three men. They constantly took turns attacking. However, no one could break away, so it came down to a sprint. While riding for Del Toro, Wellens opened the sprint, but Fabio Christen surprised the rest with a long sprint of his own. No one could catch his wheel after the young Mexican got exhausted.