Philip Deignan showed himself at the front of the race on the climbs in Spain in his first races of 2015.
Ireland's Philip Deignan has shown the first glimpses of good form in 2015 with a strong ride in the undulating Trofeo Serra de Tramuntana in Spain.
The Team Sky man was second over the prime at the top of the first climb of the day; the cat 4 Coll Den Claret less than 5km into today's race in Mallorca.
However, despite the Irishman being to the fore in the early exchanges, a key breakaway did not get clear until the 40km point when Danny Pate was Sky's only man in the 26-rider move.
Deignan contributed to Sky's efforts to bring back that group.
Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) and team mate Jesus Herrada pulled clear from the leaders with 60km remaining.
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They had Eritrea’s Kudus Merhawi (MTN-Qhubeka) for company.
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Valverde would eventually push on alone, winning by 1:23 from Tim Wellens (Lotto-Soudal).
The Belgian beat Leopold Konig (Team Sky) to 2nd after they had taken off in pursuit of Valverde.
Deignan was eventually 41st of the 56 finishers.
The result followed his 19th place on Friday in the Trofeo Andratx-Mirador d'es Colomer, also in Mallorca and another part of the Mallorca Challenge series of one-day races.
Trofeo Serra de Tramuntana
Sat, January 31st (UCI 1.1)
1 Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar Team 4:34:29
2 Tim Wellens (Bel) Lotto Soudal 0:01:23
3 Leopold Konig (Cze) Team Sky 0:01:33
4 Jose Joaquin Rojas (Spa) Movistar Team 0:02:10
5 Marc De Maar (Ned) Team Roompot
6 Giovanni Visconti (Ita) Movistar Team 0:02:53
7 Grega Bole (Slo) CCC Sprandi Polkowice
8 Tiesj Benoot (Bel) Lotto Soudal
9 Frank Schleck (Lux) Trek Factory Racing
10 Kudus Merhawi (Eri) MTN-Qhubeka
11 Davide Formolo (Ita) Cannondale-Garmin Pro Cycling Team 0:02:56
12 Egoitz Garcia (Spa) Murias Taldea 0:03:12
13 Kristijan Koren (Slo) Cannondale-Garmin Pro Cycling Team 0:03:47
14 Maciej Paterski (Pol) CCC Sprandi Polkowice 0:07:17
15 Fabio Felline (Ita) Trek Factory Racing 0:08:19
41 Philip Deignan (Irl) Team Sky 0:18:20
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