Alessandro Tonelli wins opening stage of the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana as Bardiani one-two from day's breakaway

It was a one-two finish for VF Group - Bardiani CSF - Faizanè on stage 1 of the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana, as Alessandro Tonelli took the victory alongside his teammate Manuele Tarozzi after a moment of panic in the final kilometre, as the pair took a wrong turn.

At the start of the day, it took just 21km for the breakaway to form, as Tonelli went clear with Gorka Sorarrain (Caja Rural - Seguros RGA), Jetse Bol (Burgos - BH), Francisco Muñoz (Team Polti Kometa) and Alex Molenaar (Illes Balears Arabay Cycling), with Tarozzi and Iñigo Elosegui (Equipo Kern Pharma) then bridging across to them.

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They would be given a massive advantage by the peloton, with the gap going as high as nine minutes at one point. Sorarrain would take maximum points over the first two categorised climbs of the day, as he outsprinted Elosegui to the top of the Cat-2 Coll de la Bandereta and the Cat-3 Coll de la Bassa. At the intermediate sprint in Oropesa del Mar with 38km to go, Molenaar went uncontested as he took the maximum points and three bonus seconds.

With just 30km to go, the gap between the bunch and the breakaway had dropped to under three and a half minutes, with several WorldTour teams coming to the fore at the front of the peloton to bring back the escapees. It was clear that the group at the front of the race were fading, with their gap continuing to tumble as they tackled some steep uncategorised climbs.

With 25km to go and their gap at three minutes, the breakaway began to attack each other, as Tonelli and Tarozzi went clear with Sorarrain bridging across to them, eliminating those who had nothing left to contribute to the group ahead of the final categorised climb of the day.

As the breakaway reached the foot of the Cat-2 Desert de las Palmes climb, the two VF Group - Bardiani CSF - Faizanè riders pressed on at the front and Sorarrain was dropped once again. The gap to the peloton looked as if it was beginning to stabilise, before Bahrain Victorious came to the front to up the pace in the group.

The two riders reached the top of the climb with 18km to go and a gap of just over two minutes to the peloton, with Tarozzi taking the maximum points and three bonus seconds towards the general classification.

After the work that his team had done in the peloton on the slopes of the final climb, Matej Mohorič (Bahrain Victorious) attacked on the descent and quickly opened up a gap to the peloton, catching the dropped riders from the breakaway as he chased down the pair out front.

It was a long straight road to the finish in Castellón, with the gap from Tonelli and Tarozzi to Mohorič and the peloton behind not dropping as the race entered the closing kilometres.

Going into the final kilometre, the two riders looked comfortable for the victory, but as they came around a roundabout, they took the wrong exit, with Tonelli getting tangled in some tape.

However, their gap was more than enough not to panic about anything behind, as they quickly rejoined the course and celebrated together as they crossed the line with over a minute of an advantage to Oier Lazkano (Movistar Team), who had jumped out of the peloton in the closing kilometres. Jonathan Milan (Lidl - Trek) won the bunch sprint behind ahead of Michael Matthews (Team Jayco AlUla), as they continue to test their legs in this early part of the season.