Giacomo Nizzolo (Dimension Data) took victory on stage 1 of the Vuelta a Burgos, edging out Mikel Aranburu (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) on the hilltop finish in Burgos. Eduard Grosu (Delko Marseille Provence) took third place, five seconds back. The trio had jumped away from the peloton on the 0.9km, 6.1 per cent climb to the medieval castle overlooking the town, with Nizzolo demonstrating his climbing chops on the punchy hill. A 200-metre stretch of cobblestones on the climb didn't faze him either, and he stuck with Aranburu before coming past just before the line. After the stage, the Italian dedicated his victory to Bjorg Lambrecht.ADVERTISEMENT How it unfolded The opening stage of the race was a largely flat day, with two third-category climbs of the Alto del Castillo packed into the final 15km. For much of the day, it was standard sprint stage fare, though the finale packed a sting in the tail. A five-mean break made it away early on. The riders in question were Jesús Ezquerra (Burgos-BH), Roy Goldstein (Israel Cycling Academy), Stepan Kurianov (Gazprom-RusVelo), Joan Aranburu (Fundación Euskadi) and Diego Sevilla (Kometa Cycling Team). Their advantage peaked at six minutes early on, before stabilising to between two and three minutes for much of the day. It was a quiet race for the most part, with the main action coming on the two categorised climbs clustered at the end of the stage. Ezquerra attacked on the first of them, 15km from the line. He took the points over the third-category climb, and pushed on alone.
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