Lozano happy to come through the first stage in good shape in Valencia

Team Novo Nordisk came through the opening stage of the first race of the season at the Volta à la Comunitat Valenciana in Spain today with veteran captain David Lozano keeping a cool head and finishing safely in the bunch at the end.

An undulating 162 kilometers along the coast from Segorbe to Torreblanca, with a bunch sprint looking likely for the flat finale the first part of the stage was perfect breakaway terrain. Attacks duly came and they came early with young Scot Hamish Armitt battling to be a part of the action, but despite a valiant chase he missed out on what became the move of the day.

The sprinters teams were happy to leave the break out there for as long as possible, but an attack of 25 riders out of the bunch on the last climbs changed the complexion at the front and the chase proved to be a little more frantic

“It was a fast day like everyone was expecting,” began Lozano. “Actually, quite stressful with a pretty big crash that split the peloton and contributed to the anxiety there at the end. With around 10km to go it all nearly came back together, but then the collaboration waned and it was around 50 0 60 guys in the front and my group around a minute back.”

With the late attacks followed by a heavy crash and the chasing peloton split into different groups, the closing kilometers were exciting for the neutral and as expected in the beginning the stage was decided by the anticipated sprint finale.

“We were lucky to stay out of trouble when the crash happened to be honest,” continued Lozano. “A lot of guys went down hard and I hope they’re ok. OveralI that’s an ok start for us, it’s the first race day after a long winter and I think the form is there. At my age I just need some race days to make the old engine run again!”