Eddie Dunbar strong on Vuelta a Burgos uphill finish | Sticky Bottle

*Eddie Dunbar finished in the group with the main favourites as the pace up the final climb in Spain today saw some gaps opening already (Photo: Fabio Ferrari - LaPresse)*

Eddie Dunbar has come through the opening stage of Vuelta a Burgos (2.Pro) in the group of general classification contenders as the field split on the uphill finish.

While NTT Pro Cycling's sprinter Giacomo Nizzolo won the same stage last year, today's finale was raced full-on and the climbers were to the fore rather than sprinters.

Felix Großschartner (Bora-Hansgrohe) came away with the stage win today, and the first leader’s jersey of the five-stage race, after attacking early on the 1km climb to the finish to Mirador del Castillo.

The Austrian opened a decisive gap when he attacked and
kept his effort going all the way to the finish to win as the peloton behind
him went to pieces.

While a counter attack set out in pursuit of Großschartner,
nobody could get close to him and he took the spoils by eight seconds from João
Almeida (Deceuninck-Quickstep).

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Almeida took the runner-up spot just ahead of Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) and Alex Aranburu Deba (Astana); those three all eight seconds behind the winner.

There was then a
gap of another two seconds to a group of 13 riders, which was led over the line
by Mikel Landa (Bahrain McLaren)
followed by David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ).

Eddie Dunbar was in that group – 12th on the stage and 10 seconds down on Großschartner – and looked comfortable on his comeback outing after the suspension in racing.

His team mates Richard Carapaz and defending champion Ivan Sosa were also in that group, as were George Bennett (Jumbo-Visma), Remco Evenepoel (Deceuninck-Quickstep), Esteban Chaves (Mitchelton Scott) and Rafal Majka (Bora-hansgrohe).

Just before the early breakaway was caught with about 40km remaining crosswinds split the race and Evenepoel later went on the attack, spending about 15km out front, including a long spell solo before being caught with just over 20km remaining.

Sam Bennett (Deceuninck-Quickstep) finished in 121st almost nine minutes down but he should get a chance to sprint for victory on tomorrow's stage 2.