Arnaud de Lie (20) of Lotto Dstny has won the opening event of the new European road racing season after winning nine races last year, his first season at World Tour level.
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The Belgian rider was best today in the crash-marred finish of Clàssica Comunitat Valenciana, hitting the front early in the uphill gallop and holding off Edvald Boasson Hagen (TotalEnergies) and Jenthe Biermans (Arkéa-Samsic).
Behind them, a crash in the middle of the reduced bunch saw a number of riders crashed hard in the sprint after one of the Cofidis men appeared to be bumped, causing the pile-up.
While the 190km race from Valencia to La Nucía, also known as Gran Premier València, saw an early breakaway go clear it was never allowed go any further than three minutes and always looked doomed to failure on a lumpy course that whittle the bunch down to just 40 riders.
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After the escapees - Mattia Bais (Eolo-Kometa),, Mateu Estelrich (Electro Hiper Europa), Samuele Zoccarato (Green Project-Bardiani-CSF), Thomas Denis (GoSport Roubaix Lille Métropole) and Iker Ballarín (Euskaltel-Euskadi) - split up and we caught, some solo attacks were also mopped up.
That paved the way for the bunch sprint, won in some style by De Lie, who looks like he is on track to have another great season as a stand-out sprinter after a huge campaign last year. If so, he will start to put Caleb Ewan under pressure as the team's chosen fast man.
