Ewan Warren opened his 2025 season with a high quality win in Spain at the weekend. He pulled clear with the general classification leader at Vuelta Ciclista Guadalentin and beat him for the final stage on an uphill finish.
Now based in Spain, riding for elite team Natural Greatness-Rali-Alé, Irish U23 international Warren (21) has come a long way since he claimed two stage victories at the Gorey Three Day back in 2022.
He has since represented Ireland at Rás Tailteann, helping team mate Dillon Corkery to overall victory, in 2023. Warren told stickybottle he was absolutely delighted to win such a hard race in Spain on Sunday, especially after a broken wheel put him out of the general classification fight.
"It’s the most unreal feeling," he said of crossing the line first at the end of the near four-hour 159km from Lorca to Fortaleza del Sol de Lorca. "After a good few setbacks and a year of continuously being so close with podiums or top fives last year, it feels class to start the year like this.
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"It takes off a lot of pressure now for the next while. Seeing all the work paying off is the most satisfying thing for sure."
After two late climbs, the race concluded on a gravel kicker to the finish, with Warren pulling clear with 1st and 2nd overall, Pablo Ortega Sanz (High Level-GSport) and Adrián Benito (Extremadura-Pebetero) and beating them in a three-up sprint.
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"The race was attacking all day as there was a big group of riders on the same time as the leader. I was a long way off of GC after a broken rear wheel," Warren explained.
"I wasn’t sure how the legs would be so I tried to save as much energy as possible. I knew the last 60km was really tough with a five minute cent per cent climb that we did two laps of, then a stretch of flat to the climb up to the castle at the finish," he added of the final 2km at six per cent.
"Coming into the final circuit, there was an early break of three up the road, including my teammate, Brayden, as well as a couple of other riders who had made an attack before entering the final climbs.
The first pass up the climb left us with around 10 coming over the summit. In the period before beginning the last repetition of the climb the group swelled to about 30. I realised my legs felt good so I attacked from the bottom of the climb too see what I was left with.
"It ended up just being a group of three of us including the leader and second on GC. We bridged across the group behind the breakaway and then caught the breakaway with around 2km to go.
"The yellow jersey attacked as soon as we began the final climb again, leaving 3 of us. I just followed attacks from there knowing that it was a technical enough finish. There was a sharp left bend with around 300m to go before a 15 per cent gravel stretch to the finish.
"I knew I wanted to enter in first and so made my move with around 100m to the Corner, coming in with as much speed as possible to carry me up the last stretch to the line."
