Gorka active and 5th overall in Valenciana

Gorka today showed what he's made of in the Volta a Valenciana's first stage. Gorka escaped with two other riders only 35 kilometres in on today's stage, and was only reeled back in with some 8 clicks to go. Underway he won one hill-climb and came second on another, so he's a good second in that competition. He's also second in the Intermediate Sprints classifications. Perhaps most impressive though was that he, after being in the front all day, sprinted to a great 10th on the stage out of a 22-man strong leadgroup who crossed the line together. In that group was also, as predicted, Haimar, who rolled in to 18th place on the stage. A good performance from him as well; I can't wait to see what he comes up with on the hillier stages. Rubén, in his first race of the season, was 40th, 1:33 down, the same as Alán and Juanjo. Andoni and Beñat both came in with the unusually big grupetto 12:25 in arrears. The bonus seconds collected underway means Gorka is a brilliant 5th overall, while Haimar is 20th overall. Though, the fight for overall honours seems already limited to 24 riders, as there's a big gap from number 24th, Fedrigo, to 25th, Zabel. Most of the best climbers and stage-race specialists are among those 24, so, by the look of it, we're in for quite a race.