Volta a Catalunya: Matthews wins stage 2

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Michael Matthews (Team Sunweb)  claimed the uphill bunch kick on stage 2 of the Volta a Catalunya, topping world champion Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) and Mitchelton-Scott's Daryl Impey.

Overall race leader Thomas De Gendt (Lotto Soudal) was tucked in the reduced peloton to hold onto the first position in the overall standings, even adding to his mountains classification lead with an attack on the final climb.

With his time bonus at the finish, Valverde moved into second overall at 2:47 behind De Gendt, but one second ahead of Matthews. Best young rider Maximilian Schachmann (Bora-Hansgrohe) dropped down to fourth.

The stage win was a confirmation for Matthews, who had to pull out of Paris-Nice after a crash, his second of the season after Omloop Het Nieuwsblad.

"It was really hard but I was pretty confident in an uphill sprint like this," Matthews said. "But after my bad luck this year it's just incredible. I'm so happy. When I saw Valverde on my wheel, really struggling in the sprint, I knew that I was going fast and had some good power, so I'm so thankful to my team for believing in me for this long and came up with a nice victory."

With his victory only Sunweb's second of the season after Cees Bol won Nokere Koerse, Matthews said the team really needed it.

"I think it's only the second victory of the year for such a big team and a team that puts so much into cycling. We really needed this – just for the confidence for the team, to know how strong we are against other teams. It's a really beautiful victory."

How it unfolded

Jonas Wilsly (Astana), Josef Cerný (CCC Team) and Marco Minnaard (Wanty-Groupe Gobert) made up the day's breakaway, getting a long leash from the peloton. The trio built up a seven-minute lead before the bunch finally warmed up its engines and started to reel them in.

With 40km to go, the gap was down to under two minutes as the trio went under the finish banner with one circuit to go. A crash involving Chris Froome (Team Sky) and Jay McCarthy and Andreas Schillinger (Bora-Hansgrohe) left them chasing the peloton.

The last climb, the Alt de Romanya, spelt the end of Wilsly and then Minnaard, as the Czech champion Cerny accelerated to take the solo lead with 28km remaining and only 34 seconds over the Lotto Soudal-led peloton. Finally, Astana took over and opted to push the pace hard enough to sweep past the lone leader with 24.5km to go.

De Gendt, seeing the mountains points sitting wide open just ahead, attacked before the crest to add to his tally as leader of the mountains classification, just in case he ended up dropping out of the overall race lead.

Astana continued to pour on the pressure, spitting out a group of 20 or so riders out the back over the climb. Further back, Froome's hopes for the overall went out the window, and the Sky rider ended up losing over seven minutes on the day, leaving his teammate Egan Bernal as the squad's hopeful.

With a bonus sprint coming at 7.4km to go, Team Sky came to the fore to set up Bernal, but the world champion Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) took the sprint over teammate Nairo Quintana.

The move was countered by Cofidis' Natnael Berhane but didn't last long as Jumbo-Visma came to the front for the finale. With a series of short, sharp ascents from the seaside, there was plenty of action in the final 4km, with Michael Woods (EF Education First) putting in one attack, countered by Bora’s Schachmann. The best young rider opened up a decent gap on the descent, forcing Sky to chase.

The German led the bunch onto the flat, wide-open 1.5km finishing stretch before settling back in for the bunch sprint, where Mitchelton-Scott moved too soon with Daryl Impey, and the surge set up Matthews perfectly.

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