Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma) edged out Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) in an uphill sprint to claim stage 1 of the Volta a Catalunya in Sant Feliu de Guíxols. Their duel in the finale was the first in what could be a long-running series, with the two men scheduled to go head-to-head at the Giro d'Italia in May.
Elsewhere, Adam Yates’ hopes of repeating his 2021 overall victory were ruined when the UAE Team Emirates rider was among the fallers in a crash with 6km to go. Although the Briton was able to remount and complete the stage, he lost more than 10 minutes to Roglic, Evenepoel et al.
The short kick to the line in Sant Feliu de Guíxols was always likely to lend itself to Roglič, who had won three successive such sprints en route to overall victory at Tirreno-Adriatico earlier this month, and his Jumbo-Visma team duly took up the reins on the run-in.
World time trial champion Tobias Foss led the bunch into the base of the climb, while Koen Bouwman led out the sprint on Roglič’s behalf. Roglič looked to have hit the front a touch sooner than he would have liked, but he delayed his effort slightly before kicking his way clear with 175m to go.
Behind, Evenepoel was closing rapidly but the world champion simply had too much ground to recoup, and he had to settle for second place ahead of Ide Schelling (Bora-Hansgrohe), while Maxime Van Gils (Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert) and Giulio Ciccone (Trek-Segafredo) completed the top five.
Before the start in Sant Feliu de Guíxols, Roglič had been coy about his prospects on an uphill finale that also lent itself to fast finishers such as Ethan Hayter (Ineos) and Bryan Coquard (Cofidis), but he delivered a typically efficient sprint to claim the day’s honours and the overall lead.
“I mean, you always wish the best, but the thing is that then you need to do it,” Roglič said. “The guys did a great job and I had enough with the legs again.”
The winner’s time bonus leaves Roglič 4 seconds ahead of Evenpoel in the overall standings, with Schelling third at 6 seconds and the rest of the front group trailing by 10 seconds. A split in the peloton, meanwhile, means that Egan Bernal (Ineos) and Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) lost an additional 10 seconds, and thus trail Roglic by 20.
Evenepoel cut an exasperated figure when he crossed the line, though his frustration was perhaps simply down to the fact that he had come so close to raising his arms in the rainbow jersey of world champion.
No matter, Evenepoel had reason to be satisfied with his turn of speed against Roglič and others here, even if he rued the fact that he had left himself with so much work to do in the final 100 metres.
“I had the legs to go, so why not?” Evenepoel said. “It’s the first time I sprinted against Primož. We had quite equal speed, but I think I had to come from quite far. But after the race, it’s always easy to find some excuses. Maybe if I was in his wheel I could have won.”
Evenepoel hadn’t raced since winning the UAE Tour in late February and he declared himself satisfied with his first outing after his recent stint at altitude in Tenerife.
“It was a bit tough in the beginning, I could feel all the long training in the legs,” Evenepoel said. “But when we started to push, that was when I started to feel better – so good signs for the upcoming week.”
How it unfolded
Although there were four classified climbs on the agenda, the opening day of the Volta a Catalunya was always likely to see a large peloton contest the uphill finale in Sant Feliu de Guíxols.
Rune Herregodts (Intermarché-Circus-Wanty), Pau Miquel (Equipo Kern Pharma), Oscar Onley (Team DSM), Jetse Bol (Burgos-BH) and Alessandro De Marchi (Team Jayco Alula) forged clear ahead of the Alt de Santa Pellaia and they would stretch their lead to almost four minutes come the summit of the Alt dels Àngels.
Alpecin-Deceuninck and Cofidis were prominent in whittling down their lead over the following Alt de la Ganga and Alt de Romanyà before Jumbo-Visma began to make their presence felt on the run-in towards the finish.
De Marchi, Onley and Herregodts battled gamely to stay in front until the final 10km, where Ineos and Soudal-QuickStep were to the fore in leading the bunch and endeavouring to keep their leaders out of trouble.
Their caution was well founded, with a number of riders going down heavily in a crash in the peloton with 6km to go, including Adam Yates, Michael Storer (Groupama-FDJ), Kristian Sbaragli (Alpecin-Deceuninck) and Dario Cataldo (Trek-Segafredo).
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