As expected, Movistar completely dominated the Spanish road race championships and it was Ion Izagirre who completed the performance by taking the title. Having been off on his own in the finale, his team leader Alejandro Valverde bridged across and helped him stay away before allowing the Basque to cross the line as the new champion.

Having already taken the first six spots in Friday's time trial, Movistar went into today's Spanish road race championships as the team to beat. Not only did the only WorldTour team have the strongest riders, they also had the largest contingent in the race.

As expected, the team dominated the race all day and finished it off by taking a fabulous 1-2 for the impressive squad. The pair arrived alone at the finish and Valverde allowed his teammate to cross the line in first position after having bridged across in the finale to help Izagirre stay away.

The 200.8km race was a dress rehearsal for the world championships as it was held on the circuit that will be used for the battle for the rainbow jersey later this year. The early part was dominated by a big break consisting of Francisco Mancebo, Carlos Verona, Garikoitz Bravo, Ruben Molina, Pablo Torres, Amets Txurruka, Ilart Zuazubiskar and Alvaro Cuadros.

Luis Mas and Juan Jose Oroz managed to bridge the gap but the group was never allowed much leeway. All day, Movistar kept the gap stable between the 2- and 3-minute marks before the gradually started to reel in the escapees.

When the gap had fallen to less than 2 minutes, the break started to disintegrate, with several riders getting dropped, and the escapees also started to attack each other. The final two riders to survive were Verona and Txurruka who were 30 seconds ahead of a 30-rider peloton with 25km to go. At that point, Mancebo and Oroz were still in pursuit but 3km further up the road, it was back together.

Movistar now played their first card when Imanol Erviti ayyacked on the descent and he held a 15-second gap for quite a while. When he was brought back, Izagirre made his move and he 20 seconds ahead with 8km to go.

Euskadi and Caja Rural led the chase and they started to get closer. This was when Valverde saw his opportunity to bridge across and by doing so he helped his teammate stay away.

Finally, Valverde allowed Izagirre to take a maiden title while Carlos Barbero (Euskadi) won the sprint for third.

Valverde will lead Movistar in the upcoming Tour de France and as Izagirre is widely tipped to get selected for the roster, the Spanish champion's jersey will probably be on show in France in July.

Result:

1. Ion Izagirre

2. Alejandro Valverde

3. Carlos Barbero

4. Luis Leon Sanchez

5. Eduard Prades

6. Egoitz Garcia

7. Jordi Simon

8. Jose Joaquin Rojas

9. Jesus Herrada

10. Carlos Verona