Del Toro wins Vuelta a Burgos GC as Ciccone soars to stage 5

Del Toro and Ciccone proved to be the strongest on the climb, forging clear of the other contenders before the Italian distanced the Mexican shortly inside the final kilometre to take his second victory of August after winning the Donostia San Sebastian Klasikoa last week.

Del Toro finished 2nd on the stage, 10 seconds behind Ciccone, whilst Lorenzo Fortunato (XDS Astana) finished 3rd at 27 seconds, but courtesy of the time gained on his other rivals, including the yellow jersey Léo Bisiaux (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), the Mexican had done enough to seal the general classification of the Vuelta a Burgos.

This victory marks the 12th of Del Toro’s young career and remarkably the seventh in the space of a month, having claimed the GC and three stages at the Tour of Austria as well as two Spanish one-day races.

Fortunato finished 2nd in the GC, 19 seconds behind Del Toro, whilst Bisiaux held on to a podium spot in 3rd at 25 seconds.

The day’s six-man breakaway featured: Nico Denz (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe), Carlos García Pierna (Burgos Burpellet BH), Txomin Juaristi (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Matteo Moschetti (Q36.5 Pro Cycling), Mathijs Paasschens (Bahrain-Victorious), Samuele Zoccarato (Polti-VisitMalta). However, they were caught before the climax on the final climb and summit finish of the race on the slopes of Lagunas de Neila.

There were early separate attacks in the finale from Afonso Eulálio (Bahrain-Victorious) and Esteban Chaves (EF Education-EasyPost), whilst in the peloton, Lidl-Trek were setting a strong pace via Julien Bernard for Ciccone. 

Jefferson Cepeda (Movistar) attacked with 3.2km remaining, and shortly later Ciccone made his first move, and was followed by Del Toro and Damien Howson (Q36.5), before the latter was distanced when the Mexican increased the pace, leaving the duo as the first two riders on the road with less than 3km remaining. Meanwhile, the yellow jersey and race leader, Bisiaux, was distanced.

Incidentally, Del Toro had suffered a puncture not too long before the start of the climb, but it clearly hadn’t dampened his chances of victory in the GC.

Behind Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers), Fortunato and Howson formed the second group behind the front duo, with the gap hovering around 15 seconds, with Torstein Træen (Bahrain-Victorious) able to bridge across to make a quartet.

Ciccone attacked Del Toro with 900 metres remaining and was able to create a sufficient gap, enough to take the stage win and continue his fine form, whilst Del Toro secured the GC