Vuelta a Aragón (st. 1)

Aberasturi (EUS) bests Carlos at twisty, uphill finish in Caspe's Alto del Castillo, in maiden stage of Spanish event after 13-year absence.

Carlos Barbero (Movistar Team) got again into the fight for a win on Spanish soil at the first stage of the reborn Vuelta a Aragón, 180 km from Teruel to Caspe with strong tail winds and a descending profile which all allowed the peloton finishing in barely four hours.

The Spaniard took 2nd place at the Alto del Castillo, behind Jon Aberasturi (EUS), after a very twisty final kilometer whose last turn, 200m before the end, was decisive for the final result. Barbero took his seventh podium finish in 2018 after good work from the Telefónica-backed squad, with Héctor Carretero and locals Jaime Castrillo and Jorge Arcas -the latter back to racing after breaking his arm in the Belgian classics- leading the bunch for most of the stage.

The Vuelta a Aragón will tackle its longest stage on Saturday -194km from Huesca to Zaragoza-, with the famous ‘cierzo’ northerly winds as likely protagonis, before taking on its Queen stage on Sunday with the Cat-1 Cerler / Ampriu mountain-top finish.

Picture (c): Photo Gomez Sport