Ethan Vernon gave Soudal-QuickStep a sprint victory in the final race of the Challenge Mallorca series in Palma, edging out Biniam Girmay (Intermarché-Circus-Wanty) in second place and Jarne van de Paar (Lotto-Dstny) in third.
The young British sprinter spoiled what could have been a perfect race series for Intermarché-Circus-Wanty, having won three stages over the last week of racing.
But it was Kasper Asgreen, Davide Ballerini and Soudal-QuickStep who delivered Vernon to the sharp end of the sprint finish in Palma, managing to avoid a crash within the final 3km which involved Nacer Bouhanni.
The finish was set to be determined by the 50km flat run-in to Palma, on a stage where the most challenging ascent was a 1.9km 3.6% unnamed KOM climb 17km into the course.
"This is really similar to a pursuit on the track," Vernon said after the race. "So it's really my background, and so that helps on this kind of race."
"The boys did a great job the entire day," he continued. "Tim worked the whole race, while the rest of the guys brought me where I needed to be when it came to crunch time, and I’m grateful for that."
While a mass-sprint finish seemed certain, a four-man breakaway managed to establish a margin straight from the neutralised zone, containing Xabier Berasategi (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Ivan Cobo Cayon (Equipo Kern Pharma), Vincent Van Hemelen (Team Flanders-Baloise) Marc Terrasa (Aluminios Cortizo).
The break stretched out to over two minutes at its best, and held a one-minute margin with the final flat 50km run-in to the finish.
The four attackers were pulled with sight of the peloton by 40k to go, and resiliently held out a 25-second gap until they were swallowed up by the 25km mark. Vincent Van Hemelen, however, attacked from the embers of the breakaway to hold a slim lead of 10 seconds through 20km.
Bora-Hansgrohe led the chase into the 18km mark where the final Palma 3.5km circuit began on tight city roads, comfortably catching Van Hemelen before the major sprint teams began to coordinate their lead-out trains.
Intermarché-Circus-Wanty began a lead-out effort for Girmay into the final 1km, but having come from the midst of the peloton the effort of moving up may have dampened the young sprinter's chances of overtaking the Soudal-QuickStep rider.
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