New Zealand's Ben Oliver was lining up for his very first professional race in Europe on Thursday and by the end of the day he had already stepped up to the podium for new team, Modern Adventure Pro Cycling.
Oliver had already given some indication of the speed he was carrying into the season for his first year as a dedicated road professional. With more than a decade of racing mountain bikes internationally, the 29-year-old took third in the time trial at the New Zealand National Championships. Then in the road race he was the first rider from the main peloton over the line, although that left him with sixth given the early break survived.
The break, however was caught at Vuelta a Andalucía stage 1, and the team then turned their focus to putting Oliver in position for the flat run into the line for the sprint. As the strong lead outs of teams like Visma-Lease a Bike, UNO X-Mobility and Pinarello-Q36.5 Pro Cycling emerged, Oliver surfed the wheels to stay in position up near the front. That could have all been to no avail, however, if not for his quick reaction to avoid an accident, with a seamless bunny hop in response to a squeeze onto the curb at a roundabout well inside 1km to go.
“It was a wild day of racing with the boys, the pace never let up the whole day," said Oliver in a team statement. "A lot of us got over the first 25k climb then Lucas got in the break and the rest of us managed to stick together."
The attacks flew thick and fast on the 150km stage to Pizarra, with a number of solid climbs in the first half of the stage, though at 36km to go the break was hauled back in.
"I held on over some pretty hilly terrain in the middle of the stage. The three boys I had left with me did a great job to navigate me to the finish line and get me close enough to keep me in the mix. In the last 2k I surfed the wheels as much as I could and gave everything to the line," said Oliver.
Oliver managed to jump on Christophe Laporte's wheel as he launched for the line and while the Visma-Lease a Bike claimed the top spot just ahead of Bastien Tronchon (Groupama-FDJ United), who was on the charge over the opposite side of the road, Oliver had jumped out from behind the victorious French rider to claim third.
It was clearly a result to be celebrated for the rider, who had also given track a whirl last year, as well as for the ProTeam which have only just stepped into the international peloton. The team now already has two 2.Pro level race podium results on the results sheet, thanks to Bryan Munton's second on stage 5 at the AlUla Tour and now Oliver's third at Vuelta a Andalucía.
"First pro race in Europe and first podium - absolutely wrapped! Team vibes are good, now four more days to go,” said Oliver.
The 2026 Vuelta a Andalucia continues on Thursday with another short but hilly stage from Torrox to Otura in the foothills of Sierra Nevada that could end in a small group sprint. It finishes on Sunday.
