O Gran Camiño 2023 – Stage 1 [FULL STAGE]

February 23, 2023

O Gran Camiño 2023 – Stage 1 – Muralla de Lugo – Sarria : 188 km

Born from the ashes of the Volta a Galicia – a multi-day stage race that was struck off the professional calendar in 2000 – Gran Camiño is a new addition to the UCI’s European calendar and joined just last year. The first ever tour of Galicia took place way back in 1933, but it struggled to find a regular spot on the calendar during the time of the Spanish Civil War and Second World War. In the mid-80s it finally found solid footing and, for the next 15 years, it became a big target for riders looking to snatch a result. This year’s race will follow the same, four-day format and feature a very similar route, with three hilly stages followed by a final-day individual time trial.

The opening stage of O Gran Camiño was called off due to heavy snow, leaving the stage without a winner.

The four-stage race takes place in Galicia in the northwest corner of Spain, where cold temperatures led to snowfall that grew in intensity towards the end of the stage.

With 20km to go, and three riders up the road with a slim advantage, the peloton came to a halt and the likes of Tour de France champion Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) began discussions with race officials.

Despite the three escapees initially riding on, the decision was made to not just neutralise the stage but call it off altogether.

There will be no stage winner and there has been no confirmation of whether there’ll be an overall leader. Vingegaard himself won the early intermediate sprint, which carried three bonus seconds, so in theory, would be in the leader’s jersey if intermediate prizes are still counted.

The breakaway was on the brink of being caught as the snow came down on the approach to the final climb of Alto de Moltán, which was to be followed by an 8km descent into Sarria. Although the snow wasn’t sticking to the road, there may have been safety concerns about that descent, but also of riders being cold and wet through.

Gianni Moscon (Astana Qazaqstan) and Sebastian Schönberger (Human Powered Health) were the last survivors from the seven-man break as the others decided to drop back to the bunch, while Vincente Hernaiz (Radio Popular-Paredes-Boavista) sensed an opportunity to jump across the make it three out front.

As the peloton came to a halt, the trio kept riding up the climb, and confusion reigned. A race director’s car pulled up alongside them, but they carried on for several minutes, almost to the top, before then stopping.

By then, it was clear that any chance of a temporary neutralisation was gone, and, further down the hill, the riders in the peloton were all pulling on the heaviest of new laters.

The race then performed a U-turn and headed back to the finish town, which they’d already recently passed through. Some grabbed a space in team cars but others had to ride back.

Results :