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Oier Lazkano (Movistar) won the third edition of the Clásica Jaén Paraiso Interior after surviving over 100km in the early breakaway and dropping his last companion Nicolas Prodhomme (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team) 13km from the line.
The Spanish National Champion is the first from his country to win the off-road race. Prodhomme’s teammate Bastien Tronchon sprinted in for second ahead of Jan Tratnik in third after nearly four hours of racing.
Lazkano held off a strong four-man group including the Slovenian, Tronchon, Sepp Kuss (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Tim Wellens (UAE Team Emirates) after exiting the last of four gravel sectors with 10km left to race and a 40-second advantage in hand.
Torrential rain at the weekend meant the 62.4km of planned gravel sectors were reduced to only 17.9km, but this still made for thrilling racing throughout the day and big names Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Michał Kwiatkowski (Ineos Grenadiers) had their chances at victory ended by punctures.
“The break was really difficult to form as different groups got away,” Lazkano said. “When a break takes more than an hour to form, it’s promising but of course, the peloton is…
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