January 29, 2025
Day one of the five day Challenge Mallorca series starts and finishes in Palmanova. There are four categorized climbs on the route including the Coll de Sóller but many more are peppered throughout the 150KM route, totaling over 3,000M of elevation gain.
Race Summary
Tudor Pro Cycling were intent on making things hard and with 62KM to go, they had the bunch strung out in a long line up the Coll den Claret. Marco Brenner of Tudor Pro Cycling attacked with 60.3KM to go and 6.5KM to the top of Coll den Claret. A group of about 10 formed but that was brought back. It set off attacks from Roger Adrià of Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe, Christian Scaroni of XDS-Astana, and Nairo Quintana of Movistar. The trio were caught by the top and a new group formed on the descent including Quintana, Anthon Charmig of XDS-Astana, and Alex Molenaar of Caja-Rural Seguros RGA.
The lead group swelled and with 35KM to go, it got too large and dysfunctional that the rest of the bunch caught back on to start the attacking all over again. Louis Barré of Intermarché-Wanty got clear but again, more riders bridged up and with 1.5KM to the top of the Coll de Sa Gramola and only 26KM to race, the race was all together. On the descent off of the Coll de Sa Gramola with 19KM to go, Frederik Wandahl of Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe got away solo with Clément Champoussin and Scaroni of XDS-Astana chasing at 10 seconds and a large peloton of at least 60 riders at 30 seconds.
Scaroni used Champoussin as a launch pad on a 3KM climb to bridge to Wandahl with 13KM to race. Jan Christen of UAE-XRG broke clear from the peloton off the descent of the short climb and caught Scaroni and Wandahl as they entered Calvià with 8KM to go. Marc Hirschi of Tudor Pro Cycling was next to break from the peloton but he had Christen's teammate António Morgado stuck to his wheel.
At 1KM to go, the three leaders started playing. Christen attacked first and that's all he would need. He crossed the line to take the victory and continue UAE-XRG's early season dominance. Scaroni came across next for second. Morgado attacked Hirschi on the run in, caught Wandahl on the line and beat him for third.