Cycling: Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) has won the Tour of Murcia for the fifth time in his career. As a soloist, the Spanish favorite asserted himself confidently against the entire field. Among the pursuers, Colombian Jhonathan Restrepo (Katusha-Alpecin) took second place ahead of Austrian Patrick Konrad (Bora-Hansgrohe).
Six WorldTour teams at the start
The cities of San Javier and Murcia are actually only a little more than 30 kilometers apart as the crow flies. But the drivers should make a small detour today at the 37th Tour of Murcia. A total of 182,7 kilometers had to be covered. This morning's race – also known as the Costa Calida (“warm coast”) – featured six WorldTour teams: Movistar, Katusha-Alpecin, Orica-Scott, Bahrain-Merida, Lotto Soudal and the German team Bora-Hansgrohe. Of course there were also many Spaniards. No local heroes, Philippe Gilbert and Rein Taaramae, have won in the past two years. Alejandro Valverde was seen as the best hope of ending this dry spell this year. He has previously won four times.
Valverde's confident solo victory
And that's exactly how it was supposed to happen. Alejandro Valverde broke away from the peloton very early and gained a lead of over three minutes. So it was clear long before the end that the Spaniard would extend his record. In the fight for second place, however, it was exciting again. In the end, Austrian Patrick Konrad narrowly lost to Colombian Jhonathan Restrepo, who was strong in sprinting.