The Queen stage of Volta a Valenciana finished up Alto del Miserat which is a very tough climb for so early in the season. Bora-Hansgrohe with Jai Hindley and Aleksandr Vlasov were one of the stronger teams on the climb but in the end American Brandon McNulty won on the steep ramps of Miserat with a well-timed attack.
The stage finish was moved to the top of Alto del Miserat with the final part of the stage being removed after an amateur cyclist died near the finish. Miserat (4.9 km, 10.35%) is one of the hardest climbs in the Valenciana region and is perfectly suited for climbers. The climb is irregular and includes multiple 14%+ steep sections. The race did not finish at the top of the full Miserat climb as there is almost no space at the very top.
The breakaway was caught early and all of the GC contenders were in the peloton. There were no big favourites in the race like Jonas Vingegaard, Tadej Pogačar, Primož Roglič or Remco Evenepoel which meant the winner would not be that easy to predict. Jai Hindley, Aleksandr Vlasov, Pello Bilbao, Brandon McNulty and Santiago Buitrago were some of the better climbers who started in Volta a Valenciana. McNulty’s teammate Pavel Sivakov who was one of the favourites retired early from the race due to an injury.
It was not an easy stage before the final climb. Brandon McNulty spent 3,999 kilojoules for 4 hours and 4 minutes before Miserat. 14.15 kj/kg/h which is moderate intensity and is not far from Grand Tours. It was a hard day by February racing standards and is another data point showing that there are no ‘warm-up’ races any more.
Early in the climb, Bora-Hansgrohe were pacing for Aleksandr Vlasov and Jai Hindley. They had brought a strong team of Aleotti, Hajek, Kämna, Wandahl and Gamper to support their leaders. The race leader Alessandro Tonelli was dropped early on Miserat. The Italian surprisingly won stage 1 with his VF Group – Bardiani CSF – Faizanè teammate Manuele Tarozzi from a breakaway and gained over a minute in the GC.
McNulty was aggressive in the first half of the climb. After his acceleration, there were only Aleksandr Vlasov, Santiago Buitrago and Welay Hagos Berhe in group 1 with the American. The Ethiopian talent Berhe got dropped soon after as he went too deep trying to follow the leaders and was later caught and dropped by the group behind.
In the flatter section of the climb, the leading trio did not work well together and waited for the final steep ramp. Buitrago was saving energy behind Vlasov and McNulty, likely trusting his uphill punch to be enough for the win if they all came together to the finish. Less than 2 kilometres before the finish, whilst Buitrago was looking down and talking into his radio, McNulty attacked again and immediately opened a huge gap.
McNulty won the stage and became the GC leader before the final stage on Sunday, whilst Buitrago and Vlasov lost 12 seconds to the American. Despite the climb suiting lighter riders McNulty was dominant and earned another victory in an early season race, after some near misses in Mallorca in January.
Results powered by FirstCycling.com
McNulty did the climb in 16:11 min, pushing 6.68 ᵉW/Kg. A strong performance for a February race with 3,999 kilojoules spent before the climb. Javier Romo, Igor Arrieta and Paul Double all did impressive climbing performances for their new teams as well as Bahrain-Victorious’ rider Rainer Kepplinger finishing 7th on the climb being a great start. In the team’s December training camp, the Austrian climber made a very impressive effort on Vall d’Ebo and looks to be an upgrade on his compatriot Pernsteiner, who he appears to have replaced in the team.