António Morgado won the Gran Premio Castellón - Ruta de la Cerámica when taking the lead for the final kilometre and then holding off the remains of the late attack of the peloton on the finish.
The contest near Valencia was the first men's race of the 2025 European season, while the women's European season began in Mallorca.
The Portuguese UAE Team Emirates-XRG rider had time to raise his arms in celebration as he opened a gap on Eric Antonio Fagúndez (Burgos Burpellet BH) and Clément Champoussin (XDS Astana).
It was Morgado's fourth victory of his young career and UAE Team Emirates' second of the day, after Jhonatan Narváez won stage 5 of the Tour Down Under and set up overall victory with one stage to go.
Twenty-year-old Morgado is a man of few words but seemed happy and on form for his season debut. He will also race Clàssica Comunitat Valenciana 1969 - Gran Premio V and then head to Mallorca for next week's Challenge Mallorca race series.
"I'm tired but I'm happy to start the year with a win," he said. "It was a hard race. After the last climb we were in a small group and we gave it everything to get to the finish.
"There was a big fight. I'm not a pure climber but I was at the front at the top of the climb, so it was good."
The hilly 171.7km Gran Premio Castellón - Ruta de la Cerámica was held between Castellón and Onda north of Valencia, with 2,374 metres of vertical altitude.
The early break included eight riders: Carlos García Pierna (Burgos Burpellet BH), Baptiste Veistroffer (Lotto), Jokin Murguialday ( Euskaltel-Euskadi ), Unai Esparza, Sergio Trueba (Illes Balears Arabay), Kévin Avoine (Van Rysel Roubaix) Harrison Wood (Sabgal/Anicolor) and Jack Brough (AVC Aix Provence Dole).
They built up a maximum lead of three minutes but Cofidis , Q36.5 and Jayco AlUla, with the Australian team riding for 2024 winner Michael Rogers.
Veistroffer was the last rider to be caught early on the Collado de Ayódar, with just 11km to go. Then Covi and Morgado went on the attack and got away with Davide Formolo (Movistar), Scaroni, Champoussin and Fagúndez.
Cofidis , Jayco AlUla and Bahrain Victorious tried to close them down but the gap stayed at 15 seconds on the fast ride to the finish. Morgado and Covi rode hard, as did Scaroni and Champoussin as they chased UCI points.
Morgado appeared to make an attack to set-up Covi but then he just kept going as the others scrambled to get on his wheel. He led down the descent to the final riding 500 metres and just kept going.
Nobody was able to even come off his wheel and he won by several bike lengths in a huge show of power and talent.
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