On Saturday, Rally Cycling tackled its first race of the season at the Vuelta Ciclista a la Region de Murcia in Spain. The team performed exceptionally well even if the paper result didn't reflect the effort. The team was aggressive and covered both early breakaways, Danny Pate in the first one and Evan Huffman in the second. Huffman’s move was reeled in on the toughest section of the course, a 40-kilometer uphill drag with three consecutive climbs. It was the Movistar team that set the tempo before Alejandro Valverde powered away to ride the last 70 kilometers solo.
Behind Valverde, the peloton shattered with Rob Britton, Sepp Kuss, Huffman and Colin Joyce climbing well against the WorldTour field. The result was the quartet making the select second group of 25 riders. Britton, Kuss and Huffman chased the final 40 kilometers in a valiant effort to put Joyce back in position for a podium finish. The team held the first chase group at two minutes, but with little cooperation from other teams, the front of the race stayed just out of reach. For practice, Joyce sprinted and won his group handily. Photos: Mario Stiehl
7 years ago by Sam Wiebe
