Smukulis surprises at Catalunya

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Gatis Smukulis (HTC-Highroad) soloed to victory in the opening stage of the Volta Ciclista a Catalunya after spending 145km on the attack.

The 23-year-old Latvian was the sole survivor of a four-man breakaway which formed early in the 167km first stage. Smukulis dispatched his final breakaway partner and former teammate, Ben Gastauer of AG2R La Mondiale, in the closing kilometres and held off the peloton by 28 seconds to take his first professional victory.

Alessandro Petacchi (Lampre-ISD) won the field sprint for second place ahead of Jose Joaquin Rojas (Movistar Team) and Rigoberto Uran (Sky Procycling).

With the victory Smukulis earned the Volta Ciclista a Catalunya's first leader's jersey and holds a 28-second advantage over Petacchi and Rojas.

"I'm really surprised that I could win today," Smukulis said, "I'm in good shape for the Classics, but these sorts of long breaks don't normally work out.

"There were a lot of attacks, it was a fast start, and then we got away on a bit of a downhill. I worked hard to open up the gap in the first half of the stage and then concentrated on keeping my strength for the final part of the day, which I knew would be tough.

"The last 20 kilometres were flat or downhill and that made a real difference, otherwise for sure they would have caught us."

The early break formed 22km into the stage and was comprised of three riders: Gatis Smukulis (HTC-Highroad), Ben Gastauer (AG2R La Mondiale) and Julian Sanchez Pimienta (Caja Rural). A fourth rider, Javier Ramirez Abeja (Andalucia Caja Granada), soon decided he wanted in on the action and took off in pursuit of the lead trio. The Spaniard had his work cut out for him but ultimately made contact after chasing for more than 40km.

At this point, 65km into the stage, the escape's lead reached its maximum advantage at more than 14 minutes. With approximately 100km to go, the peloton kicked into gear and began its steady chase of the quartet.

The break began to splinter on the day's second KOM, the category one Alt de Sant Grau, as Ramirez was dropped. Sanchez led Smukulis and Gastauer over the summit and with less than 40km remaining to the finish their once massive lead had been reduced to a seemingly manageable 2:20 under the impetus of Saxo Bank Sungard, Lampre-ISD and Katusha.

Twenty kilometres from the finish Sanchez was dropped from the break, leaving Smukulis and Gastauer, teammates on AG2R La Mondiale in 2009 and 2010, to continue with their bid for glory as the peloton's chase effort sputtered.

The duo's lead stood at 50 seconds with six kilometres remaining and three kilometres later Gastauer could no longer keep the pace as Smukulis pressed onwards alone to the finish. The young Latvian, however, would not be denied and crossed the finish line alone in Lloret de Mar for a very hard-earned victory.

In addition to earning the stage win and leader's jersey, Smukulis also tops the mountains classification. For his efforts in the breakaway, Gastauer claimed the sprint classification lead.