Big effort unrewarded in Estella
01 April 2017

GP Miguel Indurain

Marc Soler takes 5th after featuring into decisive move, alongside Rubén Fernández (7th) and Gorka Izagirre (8th); Simon Yates (ORS) triumphs via late attack despite whole race's work from Movistar Team

Despite investing more than half of the 186km race in Navarra (the home of Eusebio Unzué's organization) at the front of the bunch, from the first hour of racing and all the way down to the second ascent to Ibarra / El Puy, the Movistar Team left the GP Miguel Indurain empty-handed, in a race that Alejandro Valverde had stated was up for his team-mates' grabs after huge efforts put on his favour during the last few weeks.

After tireless work from Herrada, De la Parte, Moreno and Rojas, three of the Blues -Marc Soler, Gorka Izagirre and Rubén Fernández- joined a decisive, nine-man break forming at the non-rated Irache ascent, just off Estella with 20km to go. The move prevailed against a second group not working well together, and at the slopes of the Alto de Eraul, Simon Yates (ORS) carried on with his attacking strategy from earlier in the race -the Briton had gone solo on the second Ibarra ascent, together with Izagirre- and reached the summit solo.

Marc Soler spent all his energy on making up the gap, most notably at the Alto de Muru, yet the lack of cooperation from his break companions prevented the junction from happening. Yates won solo as Marc took 5th, behind Mike Woods (CDT), Sergio Henao (SKY) and Carlos Verona (ORS), in another show of class from the Catalan sensation. Three of the Blues ended up within the Navarran race's top ten, with Rubén in 7th and Gorka in 8th.

Results

Picture ©: Photo Gomez Sport