Irish U23 international rider, Aaron Wade, ended last season in the form of his life with a number of big wins and the 21-year-old has started the new campaign in much the same way in Spain. He went on the attack for 95km solo in his latest race, taking a classification leader's jersey for his efforts.
It was a very strong showing by Wade, in a race that featured many top teams on the Spanish elite scene, including EOLO-Kometa U23 and Caja Rural-Alea.
Wade, who raced in France last year where he took a big win late in the season, has relocated to Spain for 2023. He has signed for elite national team Club Ciclista Padronés Cortizo, which has acted as a feeder squad for Burgos-BH, the Spanish ProContinental outfit.
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Last weekend Wade lined out in the Memorial Manuel Sanrom two-day stage race. With team instructions to place riders in the breakaway on the opening stage - some 122km from Almagro to Ermita de Alarcos - Wade went on the attack from the gun.
And when nobody went after him, the Irish rider put his head down and settled into a couple of hours of solo breakaway action, hoovering up the sprinter's and climbers' classification points along the way. His lead grew to five minutes with about 50km covered; a gap he maintained for about the next 15km.
Once he passed through the last prime point of the day, at 67km, he was starting to feel the pinch but was not caught for another 30km, after something of an epic effort. He finished just behind the main group, after his chain slipped off on the final corner. The stage was won by his team mate, Francisco Garcia Rus.
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It meant the team had the stage win, race leader's jersey and the lead, via Wade, in the climbers' and sprinters' classifications after that opening day of action.
The second day of racing, on Sunday, saw the riders tackle 169km, starting and finishing in Almagro. The main focus for Wade was to try and protect his sprinters jersey and for the team to hold onto the overall lead.
Wade ran into some problems early in the day when he crashed after 22km. However, he picked himself up off the deck and chased back to the group before claiming the next sprinters' prime, for three more points in that competition.
However, about 15 kilometres later - and with just over 100km remaining on the stage - Wade suffered a front wheel puncture as the main climb of the day began. And as that climb was 8km long, and the race split significantly, he never made it back to the front group, eventually finishing in the groupetto.
He still ran out the overall winner of the sprints classification and was 2nd in the climbers' classification, which one of his team mates won. His other team mate - stage 1 winner Garcia Rus - also held on to the race lead to win outright after finishing 11th on stage 2.
Wade has the first round of the Spanish Cup coming this weekend and really seems to have hit the ground running in his new surroundings in Spain.
