Mirko Selvaggi attacks in Ruta del Sol

In the Vuelta Andalucía/Ruta del Sol the riders faced a 199,8 kilometre stage between from Maracena to Alto de Allanadas, a climb of the first category.

After some attempts by diferent riders, Mirko Selvaggi managed to get into the right breakaway with eight other riders. They worked well together but the peloton didn’t let them have a really big gap.

After a tricky passage through a village, Simon Geschke (Giant-Alpecin) and Mirko rode away together. Their lead grew to 4,30 minutes. Geschke kept pushing hard and all Selvaggi could do was follow.

"Simon wanted to go full gas for the Meta Volantes," Mirko Selvaggi reacts. "I said, ‘regolare', take it easy, not so fast, but Geschke went so fast for the 'Meta Volantes' I could not take over at all. There were still 40 kilometres to ride and 140 riders chasing us. I had to use my head today. I wanted to go full gas in the final 20km but Geschke kept going à bloc before that. After the last intermediate sprint he was dead."

Selvaggi left the German behind and rode on alone. The final climb to Alto de Allanadas was a hard one with gradients of over 15%. Selvaggi pushed hard on his CUBE C68 Litening but at over a kilometre from the finish line the 30-year old Italian was caught. He finished 40th at almost 5 minutes from stage winner Chris Froome (Team SKY).

“At first I thought I would make it, I still had 2 minutes at the start of the climb. However when I saw the last 3 kilometres were so steep, over 20%, I know it's impossible to win,” Selvaggi concludes.