Yesterday the Vuelta a Andalucia finished. The final stage was won by Lobato, his second victory this week. Pim Ligthart sprinted to the fourth place. Chris Froome is the overall winner. He beat Alberto Contador by two seconds. Maxime Monfort is the first Lotto Soudal rider in GC on the twelfth place.

After the first stage of the Ruta del Sol the team had mixed feelings. Pim Ligthart won that day. He attacked with two kilometres to go and he could keep the chasing group at bay. He became the first GC leader. On the other hand five Lotto Soudal riders were involved in a crash at four kilometres from the finish. On the third and fourth day there was lots of climbing to do and Contador and Froome won a stage. At the end Froome was the best overall.

“We came to the Ruta to win a stage and get a good GC," sports director Bart Leysen said. "With riders like Contador and Froome it was impossible to win the overall. We already won a stage on the first day, a marvellous victory of Pim. But the same stage five Lotto Soudal riders crashed. Louis Vervaeke had to abandon because of a concussion, the others were seriously harmed. We could forget about GC and had to see day by day.

“It was only on Saturday that most of the riders who had crashed showed signs of recovery. Jurgen Van den Broeck had finished in eleventh place the day before and finished in the top ten on Saturday. Also Maxime Monfort and Bart De Clercq performed better in the second mountain stage and that’s how Maxime has ended up as twelfth in GC. The Ruta del Sol was a success, but without the crash on the first day more would have been possible.”