Evenepoel seals Volta Comunitat Valenciana as García Pierna wins frantic finale

Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) sealed overall victory at the Volta Comunitat Valenciana, while Raúl García Pierna (Movistar) won a frantic stage 5 from the break in Valencia.

At just 94km in length, the final day of the Volta Comunitat Valenciana lent itself to fireworks, and García Pierna emerged victorious from the remnants of a break that just about held off the chasing peloton in the streets of Valencia.

The Spaniard sprinted to victory ahead of Emil Herzog (Red Bull) and Jasper Schoofs (Soudal-QuickStep), while Ben Turner (Ineos) led the bunch home on their coattails.

The fraught run-in to the finish saw three riders crash out of the break, while UAE Team Emirates-XRG made a brief attempt to split the peloton and put Evenepoel under pressure, but the Belgian was always in control and he safely defended his yellow jersey.

The final stage featured some rugged terrain around the midpoint ahead of a fast run-in to the finish in Valencia, which meant that the escapees had more than a fighting chance of surviving to the line.

A 21-man break forged clear in the opening kilometres, and though the presence of Raúl García Pierna (Movistar) – 21st overall at three minutes – placed a natural cap on their advantage, they were granted a degree of leeway by the peloton.

The move began to break up on the day’s second ascent, the Puerto del Garbí, with García Pierna, AJ August, Kim Heiduk (Ineos), Herzog, Diego Uriarte (Kern Pharma), Adriá Pericas (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), Schoofs, Sven Erik Bystrom (Uno-X Mobility) and Julien Bernard (Lidl-Trek) left in front over the top.

That group of nine still had 1:40 in hand on the peloton as they entered the final 20km, and although Caja Rural-Seguros RGA briefly marshalled a chase, it was striking that it was Evenepoel’s Red Bull squad who were policing the bunch rather than the sprinters’ teams.

With 10km to go, however, the gap had shrunk inside a minute as UAE Team Emirates-XRG massed on the front and split the bunch. Meanwhile, the break lost some key firepower when August crashed out on a corner, while Bernard and Heiduk were fallers with 3km to go.

Despite the chase behind, however, the six remaining escapees held on and García Pierna took out the sprint.

Evenepoel rolled home in the bunch to seal overall victory ahead of João Almeida and teammate Giulio Pellizarri to continue his winning start to life at Red Bull.