Stage 1 of the Itzulia Women ended in a reduced bunch sprint, but before that, it was time for the breakaway artists to shine, including a former Olympic rower.
Stine Dale (Team Coop-Repsol) and Valentina Cavallar (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) were rewarded for their efforts as Dale was awarded the combativity prize while Cavallar, who competed in rowing for Austria at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, now leads the mountain classification.
Dale went on the move when Petra Stiasny (Fenix-Deceuninck) attacked with 63km to go, joining the Swiss rider at the front of the race.
"I trusted my intuition to follow her," Dale told Cyclingnews after the opening stage of the race, won by Mischa Bredewold (SD Worx-Protime). "We had a gap into the second categorised climb. Our DS Tone said on the radio that I should ride to try to take mountain points.
"I hadn't planned to get away on the climb, but I could see I had to increase the pace to keep the peloton behind. I gave it all I had, but a rider from Arkéa attacked from the peloton and went past me at high speed."
Before turning to cycling just last year, Cavallar competed as a rower, taking part in the women's lightweight double skulls event at the Tokyo Olympics.
The Austrian, who joined Arkéa-B&B Hotels this year and made her Women's WorldTour debut at La Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège, took maximum points on the Azkarate climb before being joined by Dale after the descent.
"She is a strong climber, and I thought that we could continue together if I could catch her again. It was a good cooperation, and we kept the peloton at bay for some time. She was a good partner for a breakaway," said Dale.
On the last classified climb to Itziar, Cavallar went solo and again took the mountain points to secure the mountain jersey, but she was caught on the descent.
"I really enjoyed the race. I love climbing, I had an opportunity, and then I was like, 'OK, I will go for it'. It was not easy, of course. I hoped to go to the finish, but the race was too long," Cavallar said in the TV interview after the stage before looking ahead to stage 2.
"It's shorter and will be extremely technical because the third climb is really steep and on small roads. I hope to climb with the first again, but it will not be easy," she said, noting that she to defend her polka-dot jersey during the remaining two days of the race.
Dale had won three bonus seconds in the day's first intermediate sprint and is now fifth in GC.
"We are high in GC now. It would be incredible if we managed to stay up there! There are two hard stages to come, so we will need to be at our best the next two days," she said.
