Belgium's Remco Evenepoel exceeded expectations on stage 1 of the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana, winning his first race of the season in Spain as the Quick-Step Alfavinir star.

About 1km from the top of the tougher-than-expected Tralba del Pinar climb, Evenepoel broke away from a shattered lead group and quickly built a 15-second gap. The gap was more than enough for him and his team to claim their first win of 2022 and take the overall lead.

Matej Mohoric, leader of the Bahrain Victorious team, put in impressive hard work on the mid-stage climb to finish ninth on the stage.

Just as Belgian journalists followed in droves at last year's Giro d'Italia, there was a marked increase in Flemish media interest in this year's Valenciana, with Het Nieuwsblad devoting a record three pages to the Spanish stage race.

Evenepaul himself was dressed in the yellow jersey, giving interviews in a small media tent next to the finish.

"I really didn't know what the final stage would be like because I didn't know what the climb would be like," Evenepoel told journalists.

"The GPS and Veloviewer said it was a little flat in places" - which was true almost halfway up the climb - "but in the end it didn't feel flat. I knew the hardest part was where the attack started just before the summit."

On the early part of the climb, where the gradient varied from a slight downhill to around 10% in places, it was rare to get outside the top 10, but Evenpoel said he was encouraged that he was very comfortable on the early part of the climb. But then the gap widened to 15 seconds and remained the same all the way to the finish.

"It was quite difficult to keep the pace in the race," he said. 'I knew that if I got a gap at the top, I wouldn't be able to come back easily on the plateau and at the top,' he said."

"So I just went as fast as I could, as fast as I could. I could feel my legs getting hot. But the team supported me and believed I could make it to the end.

Quick-Step Alfa Vinyl was convinced by a Flemish journalist at a pre-race press conference on Tuesday that Evenpoel could become the first Belgian to win in the Autonomous Region of Valencia since Eddy Merckx more than half a century ago.

"He still has a lot of work to do.

"It's not over yet, there are still four days left," sport director Tom Steels told Cycling News. "There are still some hard climbs the day after tomorrow [Friday]. He's riding well.

Steele's confirmed Evenpoel's description of the final climb, saying that they had discussed his chances at the team meeting prior to the race and Evenpoel was confident. It was a very hard race. I was hoping for a win, but until the legs talk, you don't know how the race is going to go."

"The whole team, together with Movistar, controlled the race well throughout the day. But now the key will be Friday."