Vuelta a la Región de Murcia “Costa Cálida” 2025

February 15, 2025 The 200KM route starts in Jumilla and generally continues to climb until the top of the Alto Collado Bermejo at 87KM from the finish. It then starts its downward trend for 50KM when the riders go through the finish line for the first time before hitting the 4.5KM climb of Alto Cresto del Gallo. At over 6%, it may be tough enough to force a select group but they will have to work well on the flat 8KM run in to the finish to stay away. Filippo d'Aiuto of Petrolike, Samuel Fernández and Francisco Joel Peñuela of Caja Rural Seguros RGA, José Luis Faura of Burgo Burpellet BH, and José María García of Illes Balears Arabay had over 4 minutes but action behind on the Alto Collado Bermejo left just Faura at the front with UAE-XRG duo Tim Wellens and Isaac del Toro who bridged up on the climb. More would join and the race reset off of the Alto Collado Bermejo descent. More riders would attack including Wellens again, Clément Berthet of Decathlon AG2R, Simone Velasco of XDS-Astana, and Eric Antonio Fagúndez of Burgos Burpellet BH. Their lead was just under 1 minute with 32KM to go and were being chased by TotalEnergies and Movistar. Wellens led the break through the finish line with 24KM to go but Movistar were doing good work and crossed the line just 39 seconds later. Wellens attacked right at the bottom of the Alto Cresto del Gallo with 16.7KM to go with the bunch 15 seconds behind. XDS-Astana made the pace up the climb to set up Christian Scaroni who attacked with 14.5KM to go. Scaroni bridged to Wellens with 1.5KM to climb while Decathlon AG2R were chasing in the reduced peloton, now only containing 10 riders. Scaroni and Wellens went over the top with 12.5KM to go but only 15 seconds on the chase. Wellens and Scaroni were caught with 7KM to go. The lead group contained multiple riders of UAE-XRG, XDS-Astana, and Decathlon AG2R which made the finale quite tactical. There were numerous attacks but each time it slowed down, Jordan Labrosse of Decathlon AG2R would get to the front to increase the pace and settle down the attacks. UAE-XRG also decided a sprint was the likely scenario and lined themselves up with 1KM to go. Fabio Christen of Q36.5, who kept himself well hidden on the run in, was first to sprint with a little over 200M to go over a slight rise in the road. del Toro moved off of Wellens' lead out but his chain skipped and had to sit down. Aurélien Paret-Peintre of Decathlon AG2R got on to Christen's wheel but he couldn't come around in time. Christen took his first professional victory and continued Q36.5's great season start. Paret-Peintre took second with a bike throw to beat Scaroni into third. XDS-Astana put three riders in the top 5, giving them more UCI points as a team than if they had won.