After his dominance in the Vuelta a Andalucia, Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) has continued his fantastic start to the season by adding his home race, Vuelta a Murcia, to his 2014 tally. Despite having been involved in an earlier attack, he had no trouble responding to a late attack from Tiago Machado (NetApp-Endura) on the final climb to the finish and easily beat his Portuguese rival in the final sprint, opening up a 3-second gap.

Right from the beginning of the season, Alejandro Valverde has indicated that he is in excellent condition and nothing suggests that he is slowing down. After his dominant performance in the Vuelta a Andalucia where he won three consecutive stages as well as the overall, he won today's Vuelta a Murcia one-day race in his home region.

Valverde was involved in an earlier two-rider escape with Jerome Coppel (Cofidis) but when the CCC Polsat team closed it down inside the final 20km, it seemed that the Spaniard might have burnt his matches a bit too early. The Polish team sensed an opportunity for their captain Davide Rebellin and kept the pace high all the way to the bottom of the final climb.

While Valverde's Movistar teammate Nairo Quintana fell off the pace, it seemed that the Murcian had kept something in reserve. When Tiago Machado launched the decisive attack, he responded with apparent ease.

The duo worked well together to keep the splintering chase group at bay but in the end Machado was no match to Valverde in an uphill sprint. The Movistar rider opened a 3-second gap with his last acceleration to take another win in his home race. Rebellin crossed the line in the same time as the Portuguese to take the final spot on the podium.

Most of today's riders will be back in action tomorrow when the Clasica de Almeria takes place. With a much flatter profile, however, the race is likely to come down to a bunch sprint, meaning that Valverde is unlikely to make it two in a row

A hilly race

For the second year in a row, the Vuelta a Murcia had been shortened to just a one-day race but there was plenty of terrain for the riders to get challenged. During the 190.1km from Beniel to Lorca, the riders had to climb the category 3 Alto Cola del Caballo early in the race and the two category 1 mountains Alto de Espuna and Alto de Collado Bermejo in the finale before it all ended on the category 3 ascent of Alto Castillo de Lorca.

The race was off to a fast start and it took some time for the right break to be established. After 6km of racing, Romain Hardy (Cofidis), Marek Rutkiewicz (CCC), Enrique Sanz (Movistar), Carlos Oyarzun (Efapel), Lukasz Bodnar (ActiveJet), Cesare Benedetti (NetApp), and Luis Mas (Caja Rural) opened a small gap but the peloton refused to let them go.

Quintana crashes out of the race

For several kilometres, the pace was kept high and the gap remained a small one. A crash, however, that brought down among other Dayer Quintana (Movistar) - who was later forced to abandon - disrupted the chase and when they hit the first climb, the front group was allowed to take off.

The gap quickly reached 2.50 but despite the presence of Sanz in the front group, Movistar didn't leave anything to chance. The Spanish team rode hard on the climb and when Sanz beat Oyarzun and Rutkiewicz in the sprint at the top, it was down to 2.20.

Movistar allow the gap to grow

Movistar took is easier on the next flat section, with the gap coming up to a maximum of 3.40 after 55km of racing. As they approached the Espuna climb, however, they started to reel in the break and after 79km, the gap was only 2 minutes.

Several sprinters had already decided to abandon to stay fresh for tomorrow's race in Almeria while Movistar kept the gap rather stable at around 1.40. Oyarzun beat Rutkiewicz and Bodnar in the day's first intermediate sprint but when they hit the climb, they were quickly brought back.

Marczynski is first

Tomasz Marczynski (CCC) accelerated over the top to take maximum points for the KOM classification while Oyarzun still had enough left to take 2nd. Jose Herrada led the Movistar train across the line in third position.

On the descent between the two major climbs, Jerome Coppel attacked  and while Movistar continued to set the pace, he built a gap that reached 20 seconds at the top. Marczynski moved ahead to cross the line in 2nd and win the KOM competition while the Movistar rides Ruben Plaza and Jose Herrada were next.

Valverde bridges the gap

Valverde proved his excellent descending skills when he closed the gap on his own and the duo started to work well together. With 34km to go, they were 50 seconds ahead of 20-25 rider group that was led by three riders from CCC Polsat.

It was an exciting pursuit between the two groups and when Coppel won the second intermediate sprint 25km from the finish, the gap was 35 seconds. It went back up to a minute 21km from the finish but in the end, the Polish team won the battle and closed the move down 16km from the line.

CCC set the pace

A 40-rider group had now formed and from there CCC set the pace all the way to the bottom of the final climb. It was now up to Rebellin to finish it off but the Italian had no response when Machado made his attack 1km from the finish.

Valverde, on the other hand, was right on his wheel and the duo worked together to stay away to the finish. In the end, Valverde had no difficulty winning the sprint and taking his 5th win of the season.