RUTA DEL SOL - Stage 1 — BRENT BOOKWALTER

There wasn’t much “easing in” to the 2020 race season with today’s first stage in southern Spain. A super stout profile that included over 13,000 feet of climbing, wet roads, and constant drizzle for the first half of the stage saw most of us constantly uncomfortable from the start and through the next five hours.

We knew today would already count heavily in the FC fight, and with an on-form Jack Haig, we planned to make the most of the demanding day even if it was the 2020 season debut for most of us and we were a little unsure of where we were at.

As we often see in races of this level, the early phase was super aggressive and took a long time for a break to establish itself. The wet, technical roads added some urgency and inspiration to the dozens of attacking riders.

It is pretty clear that every rider here had a strong winter of preparation! Once a sizable group got a gap, we began contributing to the chase with one of my new teammates and WorldTour Neo, Alex K. I haven’t spent much time with him, but after seeing him pull the group along today, it is clear he deserves a spot at this level—-so strong! I’m hoping we can polish how he doses out his efforts and I’m looking forward to seeing him lay down that horsepower when it comes time for him to race for his own result.

With so much elevation gain over the stage, the final 12-kilometer climb that topped out just 6 km from the finish, was sure to be decisive and raced nearly as hard as a summit finish. We brought Jack into good position at the bottom and I immediately followed an acceleration from my old BMC teammate Damiano Caruso. Ole Damiano was dishing it out hard and the group was getting whittled down.

Once he was done, I took a stint on the front. Soon the attacks started coming and our climbers Nieve and new teammate Andre Z took over helping Jack.

In the end, Jack was a little isolated and left chasing Fuglsang and Landa with their teammates on his wheel. Still, Jack finished a strong fourth and is still very much in the game with three more demanding road stages and an ITT to come.