Felix Engelhardt is the first leader of the Vuelta a Castilla y León

The Peloton

The German rider from Team Jayco-ULA won the finish in Soria ahead of the Italian Alessandro Fedeli (Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team) and Alex Molenaar (Electro Hiper Europa), 2nd and 3rd respectively.

Spaniard Iván Cortina (Movistar Team) finished in 4th place after sprinting early, while Simone Velasco (Astana Qazaqstan Team) closed the top 5.

At 1:34 p.m., the first stage began, a 169-km climb starting and finishing in Soria, with two second-category climbs halfway through. An attempt was made to form an early break of eight riders, but they never gained a significant advantage over the main group and were soon caught.

Later the day's breakaway would be created, made up of: Abel Balderstone (Caja Rural Seguros RGA), Íñigo Elosegui (Team Kern Pharma), the American August Jensen (HumanPowered Health) and Jose María García (Electro Hiper Europa). Later the Dutch rider from Burgos BH, Jetse Bol, would arrive from behind, and all of them would come to have a maximum advantage of around 5 minutes and 40 seconds.

At kilometer 77, Astana and Movistar took the lead of the peloton, reducing the gap to the breakaway to 4 minutes, 30 seconds. The Dutchman from Burgos BH then claimed the mountain leader's jersey, finishing first over the Piqueras and Santa Inés passes.

With 52km to go, Jeremy Cabot (Total Energies) joined his breakaway companions, who had a lead of no more than 30 seconds on the main group, led by Movistar and Jayco-ULA. With approximately 30km to go, Cabot broke away solo due to a lack of understanding with his breakaway companions, gaining a maximum lead of 2 minutes, while Bol, Jensen, and García were chasing the French rider behind.

The veteran French cyclist would be the last man intercepted by the main group with 5 km to go.

In the final kilometer, the compact group arrived, where a quartet would pull away with a slight advantage and be able to fight for the victory. First, Cortina launched an early sprint on the final climb, a moment Engelhardt would capitalize on to impose his speed on Fedeli and Molenaar in the city of Soria.

Team Jayco-ULA was the victorious team today (aside from the victory of its German rider), taking the lead in the overall standings, the consistency rating, and the team classification. August won the stage 1 intermediate sprints.

Tomorrow second and last stage, 189 km starting in Coca and finishing in Segovia, a decisive stage for the general classification with 2 1st category ports: Navacerrada (km 100.5) and Navafría (km 143.9).