After several strong showings in big Spanish races, Evgeny Shalunov (Lokosphinx) finally got a long overdue breakthrough victory when he won the first stage of the Vuelta Comunidad de Madrid. Having been part of a 25-rider breakaway, he dropped his final companion, Diego Rubio (Efapel) on the final climb and held off the impressive Movistar team to take both the stage victory and the overall lead.

Evgeny Shalunov may not be a household name among cycling fans but everyone who has kept a close eye on the Spanish races will have noticed his name. The winner of the 2010 Junior Peace Race has achieved several good results and this spring he has been knocking on the door for that elusive breakthrough victory.

Shalunov finished second in the Klasika Primavera behind Jose Herrada (Movistar) and was 6th last weekend in the Vuelta a Asturias. In both race, he fought against the overwhelming power of the Movistar team and always came up short against the Spanish WorldTour team.

Today Movistar were again expected to be in a class of their own in the first stage of the Vuelta Comunidad de Madrid, but this time there was no one stopping Shalunov. The strong Russian delivered an impressive performance to win the stage and put himself in a perfect position to go for the overall victory in the two-day race.

Shalunov was part of a 25-rider break that escaped early in the stage and managed to build an advantage of 5 minutes. Movistar had John Gadret, Francisco Ventoso and Jasha Sütterlin in the group but were not comfortable with the situation and started to chase behind.

As the escapees reached the two hard climbs at the midpoint, the gap had been brought down to around a minute and this was the signal for the strongest climbers to make a difference. Shalunov, Eduard Prades (Caja Rural), Diego Rubia and Nuno Bico (Radio Popular) turned out to be the best in the group and they crested the summit of the biggest climb as the leaders of the race.

On the next climb, Shalunov was unable to keep up with Prades who crested the summit as the lone leader but the Russian joined forces with Rubio to pass the Spaniard on the descent. Behind, the Movistar team had picked up the rest of the early break and seemed to be strong enough to catch the leaders.

However, Shalunov was on a great day and on the final category 3 climb inside the final 15km he dropped Rubio while the favourites attacked each other further back. They never managed to catch the lone leader who took the win with a 22-second margion over Rubio while Alberto Gallego (Radio Popular) had made a late attack to take third, 11 seconds further adrift. Amets Txurruka (Caja Rural) was first from the group of favourites that included Movistar leader Javier Moreno and lost 1.02.

With the win, Shalunov takes the leader’s jersey and heads into tomorrow’s final stage with a 22-second advantage over Rubio. However, nothing is decided yet as the race ends with a stage that is held on a 5.5km circuit which includes a tough climb in the early part, a descent, a small ascent near the end and a slightly uphill final part. Here the Russian can expect to get under pressure in what will be an exciting end to the race.

A hilly course

The 2015 Vuelta Comunidad de Madrid kicked off with a 200km stage that brought the riders over a hilly course around Colmenar Viejo. In the early part, the riders tackled three smaller climbs before they faced two bigger climbs at the midpoint. In the finale, they would go up the small Cerro San Pedro before they descended to the flat finish in Colmenar Viejo.

The riders had perfect weather conditions when they gathered for the start and they got the race off to a hectic beginning with lots of attacks. Samuel Caldeira (W52) was one of the early unsuccessful attackers but moments after his early move, a surprisingly big group got clear.

A big group

At the 8km mark, a 25-rider break had and advantage of 30 seconds. John Gadret, Jasha Sütterlin, Francisco Ventoso (Movistar), Eduard Prades, Ricardo Vilela, Carlos Barbero (Caja Rural), Pablo Torres, Igor Merino (Burgos), Imanol Estevez, Adrian Gonzalez, Benat Txoperena (Murias Taldea), Joaquim Silva, Caldeira (W52), Daniel Silva, Nuno Bico, Ricardo Ferreira, Alberto Gallego (Radio Popular), Vicente de Mateos, Sandro Pinto, Hugo Sabido (Louletano), Diego Rubio, Filipe Cardoso (Efapel), Evgeny Shalunov, Sergey Vdovin (Lokosphinx) and Juan Cueto (Inteja) formed the break that worked well together to extend their advantage to 2.33 at the 30km mark.

LA Aluminios were the only team to have missed the break and so it was left to them to do the work in the peloton. At the 37km mark, however, they had lost 3.22 and when Torres led Joaquim Silva, Pinto and the rest of group over the climb at the 45km mark , the gap was 3.44.

Movistar start to chase

The difference reached 4.35 at the 60km mark and that was the signal for Movistar to kick into action. The only WorldTour team in the race started to chase with Enrique Sanz and Alex Dowsett and 10km later they had reduced the gap to 2.54.

At the top of the next small climb, Pinto led Joaquim Silva and Txoperena over the line at a point when the gap was 2.53. The climbing had been too much for Cueto who had been distanced.

Shalunov and Prades take off

At the 80km mark, Cardoso attacked from the front group and he managed to build an advantage of 20 seconds but he was quickly brought back. Meanwhile, the peloton had reduced the gap to 2.02

At the 100km mark, Sabido attacked and he managed to build and advantage of 42 second at the sprint in Miraflores which he won ahead of Rubio and Ferreira. As they started the hardest climb of the day, the breakaway started to splinter and it was Shalunov and Prades who took off.

A quartet is formed

In the peloton, the attacking also started as Javier Moreno (Movistar), David Arroyo, Ametx Txurruka (Caja Rural) and Marco Garcia (Louletano) tried their hand. They were quickly brought back though.

Prades, Bico, Rubio and Shalunov passed the fading Sabido and sped down the descent as the leaders. Behind, Gadret crashed on the descent while most of the rest of the early break was caught.

Ventoso loses ground

Alejandro Marque (Efapel) tried to bridge the gap but he was quickly brought back by the peloton which had been distanced by 1.10 at the 130km mark. Ventoso was in lone pursuit and was dangling 30 seconds behind the leades.

Murias Taldea were leading the chase as they started the second big climb of the day but they were losing ground. At the 152km mark, they were 1.36 behind but when Ventoso was brought back, Movistar again took over.

Prades escapes

Prades and Shalunov attacked out of the breakaway and it was the latter that was first at the top. However, he suffered a puncture and instead Rubio and Shalunov joined forces to form a lead group.

At this point, they were just 50 seconds ahead of the peloton that had seen Marcos Garcia try to bridge the gap. With 20km to go, the chaser was only 10 seconds behind while the peloton was still trailing at 50 seconds.

Garcia never made the junction and was brought back by the peloton which was led by Caja Rural and was just 35 seconds behind with 15km to go. As they hit the small climb in the end, Shalunov dropped Rubio and pressed on alone. No one managed to catch the strong Russian who held on to win the stage with a 22-second advantage over Rubio while Gallego attacked out of the peloton to take third.