The opening day in Spain and the pre race feel is that Kingspan are pretty much due a result and with Victor Gomes Colinas the best sprinter in the pack they will be looking to control things. But with few recognized sprinters here look, there are plenty of riders interested in making the early break.
Slovenian climber Robert Vrecer wins the early sprint ahead of Drazen Krneta and Magnus Bäckstedt.
The other five up here are Jurkha Arabuli, Martin Mahdar, Marjan Smigunov, Egor Silin and Flávio de Oliveira.
Vrecer is a good climber and Silin is a half decent climber also, so both could use this break as a good springboard for the race. Four more riders join the fun up the road.
Scott Zwizanski, Dor Dviri, Christopher De Souza and Christopher Roth all bridge to our breakaway. Veteran American Zwizanski is another that is a pretty decent climber and whilst the pack is a bit edgy about allowing the break much it is forced to accept things.
Gazprom's Silin is in the mood as he takes both the second sprint and the climb to be the race's first King of the Mountains. At the sprint Mahdar takes second over Arubuli and on the climb De Souza and Roth take the minor placings.
Cativen control the pace in the pack, they don't have a sprinter but no doubt want to keep things tight for their big name Laverde Jimenez.
AMEX have one of their veteran road captains up in the break, the other Phil Zajicek takes a tumble and in the second half of the race finds himself distanced.
50km to go and with the gap at 4.32 Kingspan are getting a taste for the catch. Dyson for Marco Brus and Adecco for Martin Kohler seem to be helping out.
The last sprint is with just under 30km to go and the gap is at about 3 minutes. The breaks frantic sprint for the bonuses extend their lead slightly - it is a really tight one.
Dviri gets the nod over Silin and Zwizanski is there in third. Silin has taken the most bonifications out on course with 10 seconds gained over Vrecer and Silin with six seconds.
The time gain though is looking like it will be minimal with 10km to go.
The break though are bolstered by the arrival over three more riders Robert Retschke, Iban Iriondo and Mindaugas Striska.
This means the 15 man break still have a decent 1.24 advantage with 5km to go.
Silin is leading them out here, not exactly the best place to be in really. The two Metinvest riders Smigunov and Dviri are right there with de Oliveria, Mahdar, Zwizanski and Vrecer. There is a bit of a gap back to Roth with the others queued up behind.
In the pack we can see an Adecco train made up of Milan, Tang and Kohler. Victor Gomes Colinas is at least here with Tino Thömel, Alexander Porsev, Matej Jurco.
Though there is little chance of these sprinters catching the breakaway which is still just over a minute ahead. These CDiv2 teams cannot get the calculations right, although some may blame the administrators for forcing just five riders per team.
Anyway Roth, Smiganov, de Oliveria and Vrecer drop back as the sprint gets into the last two kilometres. Silin is still going well with Dviri, Mahdar and Zwizanski on his wheel.
Veteran Swede Backstedt is pulling a few riders forward including late attacker Striska. Indeed as riders ahead begin to tie up as we head towards the kite the Lithuanian is bursting through.
De Souza is following Striska though with Spanish rider Iriondo and other late attacker Retschke.
They round the bend and up the main straight we can see there is three riders in it Striska is a strongman but is tiring out. De Souza has been in the break all day but is close, as is Iriondo but the Spanish rider is leaving it late.
The line approaches and responding to the home crowd's cheers Iriondo launches a last gasp acceleration.
It is going to be a close call, Striska slumps over his bars at the finish pretty flat out. It was a good go but has he dragged a Spanish rider to nick it away.
The race directors side with their home rider - Iriondo came incredibly late but snatches a win and perhaps a place in the Tour of Colorado line up.
He will also get the race lead with Striska second and De Souza follows through in third. Silin though will be third on GC and takes the king of mountains jersey.
Fifty - three seconds pass before Porsev leads the pack in behind the break.
The loss to the break was pretty damaging for the few sprinters, but not so great that it will likely affect the GC at the end of the race. Still Vrecer, Silin and Zwizanski have a decent bonus to perhaps snatch the race lead on the hilly stuff.
