Daniele Benatti of Tinkoff has won the opening stage of the Vuelta a Andalucia Ruta Ciclista Del Sol.
The 62nd Ruta Del Sol started with a 165.2km race from Almonaster La Real to Sevilla and three tough climbs for the strong field which included Team Sky.
£ukasz Owsian took the first climb of the race which was a category climb before Imanol Estevez (Euskadi Basque Country - Murias), Marcin Mrozek (CCC Sprandi Polkowice), Jérôme Baugnies (Wanty - Groupe Gobert) and Evgeny Shalunov (Gazprom-RusVelo) got away.
They were able to get to a maximum of 7.40 ahead and saw their lead dropped to 2.25 with 32kms left.
Into the final twenty kilometres with a lead of 1.30 and Team Sky with Nicholas Roche on the front started to push on.
Estevez, Mrozek, Baugnies and Shalunov battled away but with two kilometres left, they were caught.
Tinkoff, Movistar and Topsport move to the front. Bert Van Lerberghe of Topsport started the sprint with 300 metres left but Daniele Bennatti of Tinkoff was in his wheel and came up to take the win in 3.56.02 ahead of Bert Van Lerberghe, JJ Lobato of Movistar, Oscar Gato of Tinkoff and Gijs Van Hoecke of Topsport Vlaanderen - Baloise in fifth place.