Jose Herrada (Movistar) benefited maximally from a rare chance to chase personal success when he took a beautiful solo victory in the hilly one-day race Klasika Primavera de Amorebieta. Originally part of an 18-rider front group, he attacked with teammate Marc Soler and Evgeny Shalunov (Lokosphinx) whom he dropped on the final climb to take the win, with Shalonov and Carlos Barbero (Caja Rural) completing the podium.

Jose Herrada is known as one of the most loyal domestiques in the Movistar camp. The Spaniard has spent countless of hours on the front of the peloton in the mountains to set up his captains Alejandro Valverde and Nairo Quintana for their many wins.

Going into today’s hilly Klasika Primavera, Valverde was again on the start line and Herrada was expected to play his usual domestique role. However, team tactics came into play and this allowed the Spaniard to take a rare victory.

Movistar was the only WorldTour team in the race and wanted to avoid a situation where they had to chase all day. Hence, they had riders joining the attacks in the first part of the race and when an 18-rider group got clear, Herrada and his teammate Marc Soler were both there.

Movistar felt confident in their two attackers and so allowed the gap to reach more than 6 minutes before other teams started to chase. As they hit the Montecalvo climb which would be tackled three times, however, the escapees were still 4.55 ahead and it seemed they had a good chance of making it.

Herrada and Soler whittled the group down to just 5 riders during the first ascent before an 8-rider group gathered on the descent. Cesar Fonte (Radio Popular) and Evgeny Shalunov got a head start before the second climb but the Movistar duo clearly proved that they were the strongest. They caught the two leaders and only Shalunov could keep up with them.

Carlos Barbero, Fonte, Imanol Estevez (Murias Taldea) and Francisco Mancebo (Skydive) gathered to form c chase group but they never made it across. Instead, Herrada took over from Soler on the final climb where he rode away from his companions.

Shalunov desperately tried to get back in contention but the Russian never made it and so Herrada could take a solo win, 29 seconds ahead of his chase. Soler was caught by Barbero, Mancebo and Fonte and it was the Caja Rural rider who won the sprint for third. Sergy Shilov (Lokosphinx) led the peloton home 4.02 too late.

The Klasika Amorebieta ends the big week of cycling in the Basque Country. Attention now moves to the three-day Vuelta a Castilla y Leon which starts on Friday.

A hilly course

The 61st Klasika Primavera was held on a 171.5km course that brought the riders from a start in Amorebieta back to a finish in the same city. After a short flat circuit, the riders tackled a bigger loop with no big climbs but a bit of rolling terrain. Having returned to Amorebieta, the riders travelled to a 16.6km circuit that included the tough climb to Montecalvo which they did three times before they returned to a downhill finish in Amorebieta. The top of the final climb was located 14.2km from the finish line.

All 93 riders took the start under a sunny sky and they got the race off to a very fast start. Lots of attacks were launched in the first part but for some time the peloton was in no mood to allow anyone to get a bigger gap.

A big break

At the 12km mark, 18 riders managed to build an advantage of 25 seconds as Carlos Barbero, Fabricio Ferrari (Caja Rural), Jose Herrada, Marc Soler (Movistar), Imanol Estevez, Egoitz Garcia (Murias Taldea), Pablo Torres (Burgos-BH), Gustavo Cesar, Juan Ignacio Perez (W52), Samuel Magalhaes, Cesar Fonte (Radio Popular), Evgeny Shalunov, Aleksey Rybalkin (Lokosphinx), Alejandro Marque, David de la Fuente, Oscar Gonzalez (Efapel), Diego Milan (Inteja) and Francisco Mancebo (Skydive) attacked. They had to work hard to get a bigger gap but after 21km, they had managed to extend it to 1.05.

Louletano had missed the break and so they took control of the peloton. However, they constantly lost ground and at the 30km mark, the gap was 1.40.

Chtioui tries to bridge the gap

4km later it was more than 2 minutes and now Rafa Chtioui (Skydive) tried to bridge the gap. He got to within 1.35 of the leaders but at the 41km mark he had lost ground and was now trailing at 2.20 while the peloton was at 2.50.

Chtioui decided to wait for the peloton which still lost ground and was 3.20 behind at the 50km mark. At the 63km mark it was 4.20 and 6km later it was a massive 5 minutes

The break splits up

Perez suffered an untimely puncture but he managed to rejoin the break which had extended its advantage to 6.04 after 82km of racing. That was the signal for the peloton to accelerate and after a brief moment with a stable situation, the gap started to come down. At the 107km mark, the escapees were 5.05 ahead while the gap dropped to less than 5 minutes 13km later.

When the escapees hit the Montecalvo climb for the first time, the attacking started. Rybalkin and de la Fuente were the first to try but as they reached the top it was another 5-rider group with Herrada, Soler, Estevez, Torres and Marque that had gone clear. Soler led Herrada and Estevez over the top. At this point the gap was down to 4.25.

A front trio is formed

The rest of the break hadn’t given up and as they hit the climb for the second time, Barbero, Shalunov and Mancebo were back in contention. As they started to climb, Fonte and Shalunov got clear but they were quickly caught by the Movistar pair of Herrada and Soler.

Shalunov managed to latch onto their wheel, with the front trio enjoying an advantage of 3.50 when Soler led Herrada and Shalunov over the top. Behind, Bebero, Estevez, Fonte and Mancebo had formed a chase group.

Herrada makes his move

With 25km to go, the chasers were 45 seconds behind while the peloton was at 3.47, meaning that it was clear that the winner would be one of the attackers. With 20km to go, it was still 3.18 as they hit the climb for the final time.

Estevez briefly tried to attack but he fell back to the chasers who were now 55 seconds behind. Meanwhile, Herrada made his move and he crested the summit with a 15-second advantage over Shalunov while Soler was 10 seconds further ahead.

Herrada went into time trial mode and with 5km to go, he had extended his advantage over Shalonov to 25 seconds. Menwhile, Fonte, Barbero and Mancebo had caught Soler but there was no one stopping Herrada who soloed to the win.