'My legs felt heavy at the start of the race today' – Tom Pidcock comes through Milan-San Remo fatigue to claim third place on opening stage of Volta a Catalunya

Fresh from a narrow miss at Milan-San Remo, Tom Pidcock (Pinarello-Q36.5) came painfully but impressively close to another win at the opening stage of the Volta a Catalunya on Monday.

As the front third of the bunch roared into the very technical finale and notoriously tricky uphill sprint in Sant Feliu de Guíxols, Pidcock was perfectly placed to launch an attack.

However, after committing to an early sprint, he was overtaken with 200 metres to go by both Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) and eventual winner Dorian Godon (Ineos Grenadiers).

The 500-metre, 5% uphill climb to the line in Sant Feliu de Guíxols is notoriously hard to calculate, with Evenepoel, second a few years back in the same finish to Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), once again having to settle for runner-up spot.

Pidcock, in any case, will likely be able to take away one major positive despite a second defeat in three days, that he has clearly come through his major effort at San Remo 48 hours before in excellent shape, and ready to do battle in Catalunya.

"Everybody says these finishes suit me, but it's a pure power sprint, I felt pretty good, so I can be happy with that," Pidcock told CyclingPro.Net later.

"Everyone said San Remo is not so hard, but actually my legs felt pretty heavy today at the start of the race, and then I felt pretty good here in the end."

As Pidcock pointed out, the very tricky, non-stop succession of climbs and descents that preceded the finish rendered it much more complicated. But as a GC rider, he had to try to finish as close to the front as possible in any case right the way through to the line - and despite those earlier challenges, he even went as far as to place his uphill sprint as the best one he had ever done of that particular type.

"It was really hard, like everyone said along the coast, up and down, crosswind, tailwind, headwind," he explained.

"Then I just had a go in the sprint, I had to be up there anyway in such a technical finale."

"I just had to go a little bit early because in an uphill sprint like that, you can lose speed and it's all over anyway. So I think that was the best sprint like that that I ever did. I can be happy with that."