Alexey Lutsenko won the first edition of the Clasica Jaen, a race on dirt roads. He won solo following 187.8 km between Baeza and Ubeda ahead of Tim Wellens and (Lotto Soudal) and Loïc Vliegen (Intermarché Wanty Gobert). With 3,100 meters of elevation gain and almost 40 km of unpaved roads, the Spanish race turned out to be a difficult race, especially the final with three times 6.6 km of a long ascent including 5.5 km on gravel roads.
Our compatriot Jarno Berckmoes climbed into the early breakaway along with Igor Arrieta, Juan Diego Alba, Xabier Azparren and Chad haga. But these riders didn’t have much of a lead over the peloton who wanted to start the trails in a good position.
The final quickly exploded. Alexey Lutsenko attacked on the most difficult part of the dirt road and the peloton exploded directly into several parts. In the first group of pursuers, we found in particular the Belgians Tim Wellens and Loïc Vliegen, as well as Andreas Kron, Connor Swift and Emanuel Buchmann. The Kazakh was extremely strong while the leading group quickly shrunk. Finally, he went out with Wellens but the latter quickly had to let the rider from Astana go 40 km from the finish.
Wellens was caught by Lennard Kämna and Connor Swift and finally managed to make the leap with those riders on Lutsensko. But too strong, the Kazakh finally escaped 24 km from the finish.
He quickly took a 30 second lead over the pursuers where Loïc Vliegen managed to catch up. Lutsenko picked up the first Astana victory of the season. For second place, Wellens and Vliegen broke away on the final climb, before the latter dropped the Walloon in a sprint for second place.
