Vuelta a Burgos (st. 1) / Pologne (st. 4)

Movistar Team's uphill finishers take 5th, 6th at Alto del Castillo as Landa (SKY) dons first leader's jersey in Vuelta a Burgos

Mikel Landa (SKY) took a convincing win at the opening stage of the 39th Vuelta a Burgos, held over 152km from the capital city’s Human Evolution Museum to the dual ascent of the Alto del Castillo. The Basque climber surged from a break forged on the flat section between the climbs. The move was almost made by Dani Moreno, who crested the first summit within the best five riders in the peloton.

Moreno (5th) finished just before team-mate and local hero Carlos Barbero (6th), at the front of a first big group which finished 7” behind the new race leader. Earlier in the stage, Catalan youngster Marc Soler had made part of a dangerous, 14-man move, whose strongest members were only caught inside the final 20km.

Barbero will still have two more chances -leaving aside the mountain-top finishes of Picón Blanco (Thursday) and Neila (Saturday)- on Friday, atop Clunia’s Roman city, and also in Belorado on Wednesday, after a rolling 155km parcours which includes the early climb of the Portillo de Busto (Cat-2).

Pologne: No incidents for Blues at eve of decisive three stages

The almost-endless, hot (temperatures well over 30ºC) stage four in the Tour de Pologne, over 238km from Zawiercie to Zabrze, brought Caleb Ewan (ORS) the stage win as José Joaquín Rojas took 17th. The former, two-time Spanish road race champion was well supported into the final circuit by Alex Dowsett, successfully recovering from neck injuries on his stage one crash. Gorka Izagirre remains 13th overall, 35" behind Peter Sagan (BOH), before the Tatr mountain stages find an excellent prelude on Wednesday's intense, 130km day four over the Lany climb (Cat-2), just 11km away from Rzeszów's finish.

Results: Vuelta a Burgos | Tour de Pologne