Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates) made his 2024 season debut on the podium at Trofeo Calvià on day one of Challenge Mallorca.

The American rider won the hilly eastern part of Mallorca two years ago with a solo 60km ride, but this time he was joined by Simon Kerr (EF Education Easypost) and Alexandre Vlasov (Bora-Hansgrohe) for the finish in Palmanova.

Kerr was in the breakaway for all but 25 km of the 150 km race, while McNulty and Vlasov bridged when the peloton made their move with 60 km to go.

The last few kilometers looked like it would be a three-man battle, but McNulty suddenly fell from the back of the pack and dropped out of contention for the win, looking down at his cramping legs.

"I think it was a really good race. I stuck to my plan to make the race hard and attacked early on, but at the end both my legs cramped up."

"These things can happen in the first race back, but overall it was good. But overall it was good. I felt strong all day but cramped up at the end.

"I think I'll be okay for the rest of the week and I'll be looking for more results."

McNulty led with teammate Marc Soler in the hills midway through the race, but Soler dropped back after helping McNulty to victory.

The breakaway group of Mattia Bice (Portico Meter) and Pablo Castillo (Kernfarma) dropped out one by one, leaving the trio of McNulty, Kerr, and Vlasov to battle for the win with 30km to go.

Unfortunately for McNulty, he was not able to finish with his two companions, who were fighting for their eighth career win, but it was still a positive start to his season.

Vlasov, on the other hand, said the race, which was also his season debut, was "really hard." The Russian GC man said he was satisfied despite missing out on victory in the final sprint with Kerr.

"It was a really hard race," Vlasov said after the finish. I was full of gas at the end. It was hard as expected. We wanted to go as hard as we could to get to the final with less people."

"Unfortunately I didn't win, but it was a good start to the season. I just did my race and had fun today."

Kerr called his victory "instinctive" and said that EF's Directeur Sportif, Tejay Van Garderen, advised him to drop back behind Vlasov and surprise him at the finish.

"I was concentrating on him and timing when he was going to sprint," Van Garderen said. 'I think in the end I just jumped on him anyway. I just focused on his move and never looked back," Kerr said.

"It's great to win this race because I won in Langkawi last year. This winter has been better than any winter since I turned pro, so I was able to show what I can do instead of constantly pushing. I'm very happy."

The trio has the remainder of Challenge Mallorca for next week: the Trofeo Ses Salines-Ferranitex (January 25), Trofeo Serra Tramuntana (January 26), Trofeo Polenca-Porto Andrax (January 27), Trofeo Palma (January 28) ).

The next three races are all on hilly courses, with Thursday's Trofeo Ses Salines featuring an undulating finish and the final day of the Trofeo Palma being a race for sprinters.