Having missed out in the Vuelta Asturias, Movistar lived up to their status as the overwhelming favourites in today’s first stage of the Vuelta a la Comunidad de Madrid as they delivered Juan Jose Lobato and Jesus Herrada to a 1-2. Having bridged across to a 16-rider front group, the pair were the fastest in the 26-rider sprint, with Daniele Ratto (Androni) being the best of the rest in third. Lobato is also the first leader of the race.

Last weekend Movistar went into the Vuelta Asturias as the big favourites but the Spanish WorldTour team was firmly beaten by Caja Rural in the mountainous race as the pro continental team made it a 1-2 with Hugh Carthy and Sergio Pardilla. They bounced back by winning the final two stages but the race ended as a disappointment of the biggest team in the country.

This weekend Movistar found themselves in a similar position as they headed into the two-day Vuelta a la Comunidad de Madrid as the only WorldTour team and overwhelming favourites. While the climbers had led the line in Asturias, it was sprinter Juan Jose Lobato who was in charge in the relatively flat race in Madrid and unlike his teammates, he delivered the goods in the first stage.

Lobato initially found himself in a difficult position as he had missed a 16-rider group that had gone clear in the hilly middle part of the race. However, his teammates did an outstanding job to split the field to pieces and alongside teammates Gorka Izagirre and Jesus Herrada, Lobato made it back to the leaders after the final climb. That made him the overwhelming favourite for the sprint and he was in a class of his own in the final dash to the line, with Herrada even making it a 1-2 for the team.

The 29th edition of the Vuelta a la Cominudad de Madrid kicked off with a 174.3km stage around the city of Las Rozas, a Madrid suburb which is located just south of the major mountains. After a flat start, the climbing started with the Alto de Almenara (4km, 4.1%) and the Alto de El Mojon (2.6km, 6.7%) before the riders did two laps of a 31.3km circuit that included the climbs of Alto de la Cruz Verde (6.8km, 4%) and Alto de El Mojon. They were back at the top of El Mojon after 128.5km of racing and from there, they followed the same, mainly flat road back to Las Rozas for the final 45.8km.

It was a cloudy day when the riders gathered for the start and with the many continental teams, it was not a surprise that it was a very aggressive opening phase. After a small group had built an advantage of 14 seconds, Dmitriy Sokolov (Lokosphinx) surged clear in a solo move. He was allowed to build an advantage of 2.15 at the 28km mark.

Movistrar and Caja Rural took control and already started to bring the Russian back. When the gap was down to 1.30, Hugh Carthy (Caja Rural), Jesus Herrada (Movistar), Egan Bernal, Sergei Tvetcov (Androni), Mikel Bizkarra (Euskadi) and Aldemar Reyes (Manzana) took off and they bridged the gap at the 42.5km mark after an hour at an average speed of 41km/h. A chase group with Fernando Grijalba (Inteja(, Camilo Diagama (Boayac) and Hernan Agurre (Manzana) was formed but they were brought back by the peloton which was just 1.15 behind.

The peloton didn’t slow down and so the gap was only 35 seconds at the 48km mark. This opened the door for Remy Di Gregorio (Delko) to attack but it all came back together after 51km of racing when Bizkarra had beaten Herrada and Reyes in the first intermediate sprint.

As they hit the first climb, Ruben Fernandez, Antonio Pedrero (Movistar), Sergio Pardilla, Jhonathan Lastra (Caja Rural), Daniele Ratto, Rodolfo Torres (Androni), Quentin Pacher (Delko), Pablo Torres, Ibai Salas (Burgos), Garikoitz Bravo, Benat Txoperena (Euskadi), Heiner Parra (Boyaca) and Wilmar Paredes (Manzana) were part of a 16-rider group that got clear and crested the summit with a 54-second advantage. Parra beat Paredes and Bravo in the KOM sprint.

At the 62km mark, the gap was only 1.17 and there were lots of attacks in the front group which was not working well together but things soon calmed down. As they hit the second climb, the gap was 2.18 and as they reached the top, it had gone out to 4.35.

Movistar were not comfortable with the situation and so started to chase, reducing the gap to 3.50 after 70km of racing. At the bottom of the next climb, it was only 2.26 but as Pardilla, Bernal and Parra attacked on the ascent, the gap again started to grow. The group came back together but had pushed the advantage out to 3.37 on the descent.

The gap was still 3 minutes as they hit the next climb and at the top of Alto de la Cruz at the 116km mark, it was 2.35. However, Movistar were now doing some damage with Marc Soler in the peloton which was reduced to just 30 riders.

Movistar attacked hard on the descent from the climb where they split the group to pieces with a big surge from Gorka Izagirre and Herrada who worked hard to bring Lobato back to the front. They were joined by Fabricio Ferrari, Diego Rubio, Hugh Carthy, David Arroyo (Caja Rural), Bizkarra and another rider and quickly approached the leaders.

Ratto attacked from the front group and built an advantage of 23 seconds while the Lobato group joined the big chase group. Bizkarra took off in pursuit on the final climb where he passed the Italian, cresting the summit as the lone leader. Parra and Ferrari were next across the line.

With 44km to go, the attackers were brought back by the Lobato group which reached the 139.5km mark with an advantage of 2.12 over the peloton which was led by LA-Antarte. However, it was clear that they would never catch the 26 riders in the lead as Movistar were working hard to keep the break alive.

Movistar kept the pace high all the way back to La Rozas and it was always evident that Lobato would be very hard to beat. The team did everything perfectly to make it a 1-2 with their sprinter and Herrada while Ratto was the best of the rest in third.

With the win, Lobato takes the leader’s jersey but as there are no bonus seconds, 15 riders are equal on time. To win the race overall, he has to do well again in tomorrow’s final stage which is a circuit race in the Madrid suburb of Barrio del Pilar. It is held on a 5.05km circuit that the riders will cover 19 times for an overall distance of 95.95km. It’s a very simple circuit held on a mostly straight road where the riders will travel back and forth with U-turns at both ends. The first part is uphill and there’s a category 3 climb (1km, 2.4%) after 1.65km of racing. Then it’s slightly downhill until the turning point and the flamme rouge. The final kilometre is again slightly uphill, making it a perfect stage for Lobato.