A flat criterium to open Tachira, four attackers almost instantly create break of the day. These are: Jesus Del Nero Alessandro Bazzana Bjorn Selander Xavier Quevedo
Meanwhile in the bunch to no surprise it's Prio for Avelino, Bpost for Jens Keukeleire and Euskaltel for Nacer Bouhanni doing 100% of the work.
Jesus Del Nero wins both the intermediate sprints with Bazzana twice second and Selander twice third. Quevedo being the unlucky rider with no points.
There are high winds present and QUINTANA loses contact with the bunch with 15km to go! What a loss that would be on first day of racing...
We now are hearing from radio it seems it's Dayer Quintana dropped and not Nairo, Azteca manager will breathe a sigh of relief!
6km to go and the break is caught. All the main sprinters are positioned up front, to no surprise Prio, Bpost and Euskaltel are leading the pack, something they have done since the start, no other teams helped in any way. Will other teams benefit or one of these three teams get a winner today?
4km left and something random happens, something not anyone expected. Eusktaltel hit gas and manage to create small gap, all other teams look bemused and didn't react instantly. With Reza and Martin Bouhanni has two strong man can they keep that gap?
Behind them its bit chaotic at the moment with BPost trying to catch the Euskaltel train. Prio has 5 riders but look very unorganized, can they manage something from this situation?
2.5km to go and Francisco Anton Martin takes over from Reza who managed to maintain the gap over the rest of the pack. Laurens De Vreese is doing his best to catch on Bouhanni's wheel!
Behind Jens Keukeleire sits Ismaël Kip and Krieger who managed to gain few positions. The big losers are Drapac and Brea who had to pull off not being able to follow furious pace.
Coutinho is trying to bring Avelino to front but it doesn't look good for him at the moment.
As Martin finishes his job Bouhanni is about to take over. What a gap. Surely this is over. Bouhanni can now see flamme rouge!
While Bouhanni is off in the distance under flamme rouge it's Jens Keukeleire who's leading the charge. Coutinho did awesome job for Avelino in the last metres bringinh himself up to Keukeleire, Avelino is now in a decent position but seems today he'll fight for 2nd only. Ismaël Kip is trying to hang on to Avelino's wheel.
500 metres to go and Bouhanni is flying. No one is near. Keukelire and Avelino are fighting it off for second while others are just not even in contention.
Nacer takes the win! Doesn't even seem to have any energy to celebrate! What a dominant win, I think you'll find it hard to see more dominant sprint victory through whole year.
Avelino just edged out Keukeleire for 2nd, but he will have to rue team's mistake and disorganization costing him dearly today. Coutinho performance at the end was spectacular and is rewarded with 4th, if they can do it properly tomorrow they should be a lot closer to Euskaltel this time round. Anton Martin takes a brilliant 5th to really top it off for Eusktaltel today
Kip in 6th Krieger 8th and Drapac 9th won't be happy how they couldn't really follow wheels today.
The three teams that worked elusively today dominated the stage today. 7 riders from those three in top 10 today.
Bouhanni didn't celebrate on the line, but he's celebrating now!
