"We said we’d go for me" - Michael Matthews' injury sees Felix Engelhardt take victory at Castilla y Leon

Team Jayco AlUla brought Michael Matthews tot he Vuelta a Castilla y Leon to seek success ahead of big goals, but a crash the day before opened things up for Felix Engelhardt to take the opportunity and surge to the stage win in the opening day of the Spanish stage-race.

“It was bit unexpected, we’re here with Michael Matthews who is arguably the strongest rider in the peloton. So we were working all day long, mainly with him as the focus. But after he had a crash yesterday (at Prueba Villafranca) and didn’t feel that great in the final, we said we’d go for me. It also suited me quite well," the German puncheur said at the end of the day.

At 22 years of age Engelhardt cements his spot in the Australian team, netting the second win of the year after winning the Per Sempre Alfredo classic earlier in the year. He was part of a four-man move that attacked from the peloton late in the day, and managed to outsprint the likes of Ivan García Cortina and Alessandro Fedeli who were also part of the group. "The team did an amazing job. We were first over the bridge and into the final climb, and then I still had one team-mate to pull," he explains.

"Then he pulled off and I knew it was now or never. I needed to go, because if you lose the momentum then you never get going. I felt really good, and then I had to take the sprint from the front so I thought I needed to go a bit earlier, otherwise I’d get swamped from behind, because it’s quite a fast final. I think everybody had the same feeling and was on the limit for the last couple of hundred metres, and it worked out," Engelhardt concluded. Today he has the task of protecting his lead in what is the second and final day of the race.