Reigning under-23 World Champion Axel Laurance secured his first victory at WorldTour level in the Volta a Catalunya on Friday, but as the Frenchman admitted afterwards, he did not know for certain he had taken the victory until his teammates began to congratulate him.
Stage 5 of the Volta a Catalunya was a fast and furious affair, run off at nearly 50 kph in the first hour and with no attacks going clear for good until the rugged 167.3-kilometre stage was nearing its halfway point.
As a consequence, the 22-year-old first-year-pro said afterwards, he had no idea if there were still one or two breakaways up the road when he sprinted for the line. But Laurance opted to go for it, just in case - and after a near-miss at the Bretagne Classic-Ouest France last year, his prudence was rewarded with his first WorldTour victory.
"I'm obviously very, very happy with this," Laurance, already a winner of a CroTour stage in 2022 and at the Etoile de Bessèges earlier this year, told Cyclingnews afterwards. To date he's only done a scant week of racing at WorldTour level - Bretagne last year, Milan-San Remo last Saturday and now Catalunya, Laurance pointed out, and "Of course I didn't expect to win right away. But it's good to tick a first WorldTour win off."
On a tough day of racing described by Tadej Pogačar as the hardest of the race in terms of attacking, Laurance said the key to success was two-fold: Getting over the last category 2 climb, the Alt de la Creu d'Aragall with 30 kilometres to go, staying well-placed and ahead in the pack, then being ready to go for it in the finale.
"We had no idea if the break of the day" - finally formed of five riders and caught on the cat.2 climb - "could make it to the finish or not. There were two hours of fighting for the break and so everybody was feeling the pace even before we got to that last climb."
"But I was always doing well, I had a team that supported me well and I was on Pogačar's wheel all the way up, I didn't have to ease back, and that made me think I was in good shape for the victory."
With only 40 riders or so in the front peloton once they'd gone over the Creu d'Aragall, and virtually none of them sprinters, Laurance said his optimism began to climb fast. Even though a big second group containing fastmen of the calibre of stage 4 winner Marijn van den Berg (EF Education-EasyPost) - who finally placed second behind Laurance - and Bryan Coquard (Cofidis) then got back on, he still felt confident because, as he put it, that he'd used up less energy and therefore had more in the tank for the final dash for the line.
And so it proved, with another piece of the jigsaw falling into place for Laurance when he found teammate Edward Planckaert was on the front as well.
"I asked him to keep up a high pace so that I would stay in a good place and that wouldn't reform so much at the back," Laurance explained, "and that worked out perfectly, I was exactly where I needed to be to go for the sprint."
"I didn't know for sure if I'd won, if there were still some guys up the road, but when I saw my teammates raising their arms, I knew for sure that the win was in the bag."
Laurance's victory continued a perfect day - and perfect week - for the Alpecin-Deceuninck senior men's team, starting with Jasper Philipsen's victories in Milano-Sanremo and the Classic Brugge-De Panne and showing no sign of letting up on Friday with triumphs for Mathieu van der Poel in the E3 Saxo Classic and Laurance in Catalunya.
The number of times in cycling history that a World Champion in both senior and under 23 levels have both taken a win on the same day, too, is surely extremely low, too.
From hereon, Laurance will have plenty more chances to go for another top victory, with his next races the Limbourg Tour in Holland, the Brabantse Pijl and then Amstel Gold and Fleche Wallonne.
"So it's going to be a big month of racing in April too," he concluded. But come what may, his first victory at WorldTour level is safely in the bag.
