Danny van Poppel sprinted to victory on the opening stage of the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana to get his 2018 season off to a flying start with his new team LottoNL-Jumbo.
The Dutchman, who moved from Team Sky in the off-season, beat Luka Mezgec (Mitchelton-Scott) to the line in Peñiscola, with Jurgen Roelandts (BMC Racing) finishing a more distant third.
Van Poppel's new teammates shouldered more than their fair share of responsibility on the largely flat 191km stage, helping to catch the day's breakaway before amassing at the front of the peloton in the closing kilometres.
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They had to burn a couple of extra matches when a crash involving EF-Drapac’s Sacha Modolo and Tom Van Asbroeck caused a split and left Team Sky's Gianni Moscon out front with a small margin in the last couple of kilometres. Moscon went all in but was caught with several hundred metres to go, leaving LottoNL's final lead-out man with just a few more pedal strokes before letting Van Poppel emerge from the slipstream.
When he did, he produced a powerful surge to which only Mezgec – Mitchelton-Scott's chosen sprinter here as Matteo Trentin returns from injury – could respond. The Slovenian champion came back towards the line but never looked like overhauling Van Poppel.
Behind them, Roelandts held on for third place on his BMC debut, just ahead of Dan McLay, who was making up considerable ground having started his sprint some way back on his own debut for EF-Drapac.
How it unfolded
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
via Cyclingnews Latest Race Results http://www.cyclingnews.com/races/volta-a-la-comunitat-valenciana-2018/stage-1/results
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