Archie Ryan impressive on short sharp uphill finish in Spain | Video

Archie Ryan is squarely in contention after the opening stage at Vuelta a Burgos, showing his power on the final climb despite a crash just ahead of him (Photo: Luis Angel Gomez-SCA-Cor Vos)

Archie Ryan (EF Education-EasyPost) has started his Vuelta a Burgos campaign very strongly and would have done even better but for his positioning starting the final ramp. He also had to avoid a crash ahead of him, at the end of 204km of racing - with 2,500m of elevation gain - into Burgos.

Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates), the man who beat Ryan to stage and overall victory at last month's Tour of Austria, and Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek), rubbed wheels just before the finish and hit the deck hard.

As the 3km safety zone does not apply in uphill stage finishes, they have both lost well over one minute in the general classification; something the other favourites, including Ryan, will perhaps not lose too much sleep about, especially as neither rider was seriously injured.

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Ryan was just behind them when they fell and, though he easily got around the crash on the narrow road, he was forced to stall for a moment and perhaps lost some impetus - and maybe a second or two in the final charge to the line.

However, his 9th place finish should have been better, with his relatively poor positioning largely to blame. The Irishman had to make a big effort to close to a group of about 10 riders that pushed clear of the remains of the peloton just as the final 1km climb to the line began.

And almost immediately he used some of his reserves to close that gap, the final surge for the finish began, with Ryan unable to move up any further. Roger Adrià (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe) and Jordan Labrosse (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) began the gallop at the front and stayed there; duking it out for the win with Adrià just about getting it.

Afonso Eulálio (Bahrain-Victorious) was 3rd, four seconds behind the leading duo, followed closely by teammate Damiano Caruso and Labrosse's teammate, Léo Bisiaux, both also at four seconds.

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Then came a small group, which included Ryan, all at seven seconds. Fabio Christen (Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team) was 6th, Lucas Eriksson (Tudor Pro Cycling Team) 7th, Egan Bernal (INEOS Grenadiers) 8th, and Ryan 9th. Brandon Smith Rivera (INEOS Grenadiers) rounded out the top ten 11 seconds down.

The five-stage race continues tomorrow with a relatively flat 161.6km stage from Cilleruelo de Abajo to Buniel before and much hillier stage 3 on Thursday.

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