In a chaotic sprint, Modolo seemed to have the advantage and as he raised his hands to celebrate, but Boudat made the last move and crossed the finish line just ahead of the Italian.
“Today I feel sorry for the team only,” said Modolo. “They were perfect. The loss bothers me so much because of them. It was a hard race in the end with more than 3,000 meters [of climbing], and today shows the condition was there.”
Chris Froome (Team Sky) finished safely in the main bunch on his first race of the 2018 season. Ruta del Sol continues on Thursday with a 140km stage from Otura to a summit finish at La Guardia de Jaén.
https://youtu.be/-CVQRA2da6s?t=2402
Vuelta a Andalucia 2018 – stage 1 results (Mijas – Granada):
| 1 | Thomas Boudat (Direct Energie) | 5:21:39 |
| 2 | Sacha Modolo (EF Education First-Drapac) | ,, |
| 3 | Clement Venturini (AG2R La Mondiale) | ,, |
| 4 | Andrea Pasqualon (Wanty-Groupe Gobert) | ,, |
| 5 | Tosh Van Der Sande (Lotto Soudal) | ,, |
| 6 | Carlos Barbero (Movistar) | ,, |
| 7 | Jonas Koch (CCC Sprandi Polkowice) | ,, |
| 8 | Moreno Hofland (Lotto Soudal) | ,, |
| 9 | Enrico Battaglin (LottoNL-Jumbo) | ,, |
| 10 | Jan Tratnik (CCC Sprandi Polkowice) | ,, |
