Dorian Godon (Ineos Grenadiers) has claimed a long uphill sprint against Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) by the bare minimum in the streets of Volta a Catalunya stage 1 finish town Sant Felíu de Guixols.
After a reduced peloton of some 100 riders roared down off the coast road and through the notoriously technical finale used every year in recent editions of cycling’s third-oldest stage race, Tom Pidcock (Pinarello-Q36.5) launched a move on the right-hand side of the road.
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How it unfolded
On the usual hilly route out of the start/finish town of Sant Felíu de Guixols, an early attack by Lotto-Intmermarché’s latest breakaway star, Baptiste Veistroffer, was joined by Hugo Aznar (Kern Pharma) and his brother Unai, racing for Euskatel-Euskadi, Josh Burnett (Burgos Burpellet BH) and Modern Adventure’s racer from Arizona, former Tour of the Gila winner Tyler Stites.
The five maintained a two-minute margin on the one major ascent of the day, mid-stage category 1 Alt de Sant Hilari, before beginning the long plunge back to the coast.
The status quo, albeit with a slowly decreasing advantage for the quintet ahead, continued deep into the final hour of racing, as Ineos Grenadiers, NSN and above all Bahrain Victorious kept the peloton well within range of the break. Speeding down to the Mediterranean coastline in warm sunshine, not even the final technical part along the rugged, rocky cliff roads could help keep the bunch at bay.
The last two riders standing in the break, Burnett and Veistroffer, initially maintained a stubborn defence on the never-ending series of undulating climbs, and the high pace in response in the pack saw last year’s stage 2 sprint winner, Ethan Vernon (NSN), sit up and guard his strength for Tuesday’s flatter finale. But the Briton was far from alone on the relentlessly rising and falling road, with Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) one potential GC contender who also eased back a little later.
UAE’s Brandon McNulty, seemingly untired by his key role in Tadej Pogačar’s victory in Milan-San Remo, took the peloton back up towards Burnett, who shed Veistroffer to continue ahead until 11.5kms to go.
A long line of UAE riders then continued on the front of the bunch on a broad, but perpetually curving road, picking its way perilously halfway up a cliff edge, with the speed both shredding the peloton and forcing the GC riders to stay close to the front in case of late splits or crashes.
Bahrain Victorious, riding for Santiago Buitrago and Lenny Martínez, produced an even bigger acceleration into the final five kilometres. Even so, when the pack paced over the last kick and down into Sant Felíu, Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) was present on the front himself to stay out of danger, with Evenepoel right behind.
As a rider who lives nearby and knows Catalunya, and this race, like the back of his hand, it was unsurprising to see Visma’s Sepp Kuss lead the peloton onto the seafront, across a brief section of cobbles and onto the final sharp rise. Miraculously, there did not appear to be any crashes – although the lack of rain surely helped there in the ultra-tricky finale, and almost half the peloton roared onto the long rise that features every year on stage 1.
NSN, perhaps remembering the win for their rider Nick Schulz on the same finish two years ago, were the fastest onto the 700 metres of 5% uphill, only for Pidcock to blast out of the right-hand side of the disordered pack. However, he was overtaken by Evenepoel, and Godon finally came through to claim the stage win and the first jersey of the race.
Tuesday’s stage from the Catalan frontier town of Figueres to Banyoles is equally lumpy, but with only one early classified climb and a much more straightforward finale, the odds of a full bunch sprint are high.
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