Jonas Vingegaard enjoyed a dominant start to the season earlier this month at Paris-Nice, winning the race for the first time on his third attempt. Next week, he'll continue his road to the Giro d'Italia with a trip to the Volta a Catalunya.
The Dane has never competed at the week-long stage race before, but he heads to Sant Feliu de Guíxols as the top favourite in what will be his only other race before his Giro debut.
Vingegaard, who triumphed in Paris-Nice with two stage race victories and took the overall by 4:23, plus the points and mountains jerseys, will face a stronger field in Catalunya. Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), and Tom Pidcock (Pinarello-Q36.5) head up the list of his rivals.
However, despite the tougher challenges, he's confident of success on the road to Barcelona.
"I'm very satisfied with how I'm feeling on the bike right now. My form is good, and compared to the same period last season, I'm in a better place now," he said.
"Paris–Nice was my first race of the year, and it was promising. I hope to maintain that feeling over the next seven days."
The Volta a Catalunya route will start with a mix of sprint and hilly stages over three days ahead of stage 4's summit finish at Vallter (11.4km at 7.8%). Further mountain stages to La Molina (16.5km at 7.2%) and Queralt (6km at 7%) follow, ahead of the traditional hilly closer in Barcelona's Montjuïc Park.
As well as Evenepoel, Almeida and Pidcock, Vingegaard will battle with a host of other top GC racers next week – Enric Mas, Florian Lipowitz, Mattias Skjelmose, Felix Gall, Mikel Landa, Oscar Onley, Ben O'Connor, and Richard Carapaz.
Vingegaard is looking to beat them all to claim what would be the ninth WorldTour stage race victory of his career, though he wasn't giving much away over who he sees as his biggest rival.
"There's a strong field at the start this week, so I expect a tough race full of challenges," Vingegaard said.
"Many teams, including ours, have strong lineups. I'll have to keep an eye on several riders in the fight for the overall victory, and I'm looking forward to the battle.
"I always start with the goal of winning, and that's the case again this week."
Catalunya isn't the main goal of his spring, of course. Instead, the race, like Paris-Nice, is a key stop on the way to the Giro d'Italia. May's race forms the first half of his Giro-Tour double bid.
"After Catalunya, there are still five weeks until the start of the Giro," Vingegaard said. "After this, I'll have a short rest period, followed by another altitude training camp to head to Italy in the best possible shape. But first, all the focus is on the coming week."
