Volta a Catalunya: De Gendt solos to stage win

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Thomas De Gendt (Lotto Soudal) staged a massive coup Monday at the Volta a Catalunya, winning the first stage with a solo victory into the coastal town of Calella and taking a 2:48 lead in the overall classification 

Max Schachmann (Bora-Hansgrohe) jumped ahead of an unmotivated peloton in the closing kilometres to take second place, while Grega Bole (Bahrain-Merida) won the bunch sprint for third.

De Gendt was part of an early breakaway of six riders, but he attacked alone over the day’s mid-race, main climb, the Coll Formic. He built out a comfortable lead of more than four minutes and maintained much of that over the final climb up Port de Collsacreu.

With little effort from the teams in the peloton to close down the gap, De Gendt finished with the stage victory, the KOM classification jersey. points jersey, and the early leader’s jersey.

The second stage on Tuesday will take the peloton on a 166.7km route from Mataró to Sant Feliu de Guixols. De Gendt now leads the overall classification by 2:48 over Schachmann and 2:54 over Bole.

How it unfolded

The opening stage of the Volta a Catalunya started and finished in the coastal city of Calella, but the 165km route took the peloton inland and over five categorised KOMs: Port de Collsacreu (cat. 3), Por de Santa Fe del Montseny (cat. 1), Alt El Muntanya (cat.1), Coll Formic (Cat. 1) and a final tilt over the Port de Collsacreu (cat. 3) before a descent back into Calella.

The early breakaway was nothing to be snuffed at with the likes of De Gendt and Luis Mate (Cofidis) along with Alexis Gougeard (AG2R La Mondiale), Angel Madrazo (Burgos-BH), Alvaro Cuadros (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) and Huub Duijn (Roompot-Charles).

The six men pushed their lead out over the first two ascents, Collsacreu and Santa Fe del Montseny, and it hovered at four minutes during the mid-way point of the race.

They descended into the valley roads and toward the next double category 1 climbs over Alt El Muntanya and Coll Formic. An attack from De Gendt saw the Belgian clear his companions.

Mate tried to follow but fell behind and trailed De Gendt by 50 seconds over the top of the Coll Formic, while Gougeard, Madrazo, Cuadros and Duijn were brought back into the field.

De Gendt secured enough points throughout the stage to take the lead of the KOM jersey. He pushed on alone and with a four-minute lead as he raced down the descent from the Formic and into the Port de Collsacreu in pursuit of the stage win and the first overall leader’s jersey of the Volta a Catalunya.

Movistar picked up the reins on the Formic’s descent, and then a combination Arkea-Samsic and Murias teams pulled the peloton through the valley toward the Collsacreu, picking up Mate with 30km to go. Their efforts weren’t enough to reel in De Gendt, however, as he added another 30 seconds to his lead.

De Gendt crested the Collsacreu, and although he lost one minute on the category 3 climb, he still held 3:30 on the 18km descent and run-in to Calella.

There was no urgency from the peloton on the Collsacreu to close the gap, and the chase seemed almost muted by Movistar, Team Sky, Bora-Hansgrohe and Mitchelton-Scott,who were all amassed at the front but with no concerted effort to chase.

The peloton made what seemed a minor attempt to close the gap, and it was reduced slightly, but the teams let up again and De Gendt’s gap bloomed back out to 3:30 as he raced into Calella with the stage win and the leader’s jersey.

Schachmann attacked in a last-ditch effort to pick up second-place, while also gaining a few seconds on his rivals in the overall classification.

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