Pavel Bittner (Dsm-firmenich PostNL) won the opening stage of the 2024 Vuelta a Burgos to take his first professional victory.
The 21-year-old Czech rider surfed the wheels perfectly in the final kilometre. While the likes of Caleb Ewan lost position, Bittner managed to find Giacomo Nizzolo’s wheel and then surged past the Q36.5 rider in sight of the finish line.
Thanks to his victory, Bittner also pulled on the purple race leader’s jersey.
Ivan Garcia Cortina (Movistar) was third, with Ediardo Affini (Visma-Lease a Bike) fourth.
The USA’s Sepp Kuss (Visma-Lease a Bike) was forced to make a bike change after a crash with 34 km to go and then was caught up in another crash with 18km to go but finished the stage in the peloton.
The opening stage was raced in the Spanish heat but an early break soon formed, with Rodrigo Alvarez (Burgos-BH), Iker Mintegi (Euskaltel-Euskadi) and Diego Pablo Sevilla (Team Polti-Kometa) soon gaining two minutes.
Jayco AlUla and Tudor kept them under control but Sevilla won the final mountain points to pull on the KOM jersey after the stage. Sevilla was the last rider to be caught with 14km to go and then the sprint teams took over for the fast ride into Burgos.
“It feels amazing to win. It’s my first pro win, I was second a lot of times this year. The team did an amazing job and gave me a lot of confidence, so a big thanks goes to them.
“The guys dropped me off at the last roundabout with two kilometres to go and I had to gamble a little and be patient. I got on Nizzolo’s wheel and then when I saw the finish, I went for it. Luckily I was the fastest.
“I was confident I could finally do it, I was close last week in the Czech Tour to finally get it is really nice.”
Results
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