Dorian Godon (Ineos Grenadiers) has claimed a long uphill sprint against Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) by the bare minimum in the streets of Volta a Catalunya stage 1 finish town Sant Felíu de Guixols.
After a reduced peloton of some 100 riders roared down off the coast road and through the notoriously technical finale used every year in recent editions of cycling's third-oldest stage race, Tom Pidcock (Pinarello-Q36.5) launched a move on the right-hand side of the road.
However, in a thrilling finale sprint, the Briton was overhauled by Evenepoel, with Godon glued to the Belgian's back wheel before the French champion came past close to the line.
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Godon, a stage winner at Paris-Nice, had a gap to Evenepoel that was so narrow, he waited for confirmation before celebrating, whilst Pidcock just held on for third.
"It was very hard at the end, the last part along the coast was very hard," Godon told reporters including Eurosport at the finish.
"I was in the front five or six coming into the last uphill bit, launched my sprint at 400 metres to go but it was really long and the last 50 metres felt like they lasted an hour. I got it so I'm really happy.
"Having the leader's jersey is very special, particularly as these were training roads of mine when I used to live nearby, I'd often stop here to have a coffee.
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"I already got the win in Paris-Nice, that gave me a lot of confidence, and then beating Remco was a very special duel. And tomorrow I'll try to do the same."
How it unfolded
On the usual hilly route out of the start/finish town of Sant Felíu de Guixols, an early attack by Lotto-Intmermarché's latest breakaway star, Baptiste Veistroffer, was joined by Hugo Aznar (Kern Pharma) and his brother Unai, racing for Euskatel-Euskadi, Josh Burnett (Burgos Burpellet BH) and Modern Adventure's racer from Arizona, former Tour of the Gila winner Tyler Stites.
The five maintained a two-minute margin on the one major ascent of the day, mid-stage category 1 Alt de Sant Hilari, before beginning the long plunge back to the coast.
The status quo, albeit with a slowly decreasing advantage for the quintet ahead, continued deep into the final hour of racing, as Ineos Grenadiers, NSN and above all Bahrain Victorious kept the peloton well within range of the break. Speeding down to the Mediterranean coastline in warm sunshine, not even the final technical part along the rugged, rocky cliff roads could help keep the bunch at bay.
Burnett leads the early move (Image credit: Getty Images)
The last two riders standing in the break, Burnett and Veistroffer, initially maintained a stubborn defence on the never-ending series of undulating climbs, and the high pace in response in the pack saw last year's stage 2 sprint winner, Ethan Vernon (NSN), sit up and guard his strength for Tuesday's flatter finale. But the Briton was far from alone on the relentlessly rising and falling road, with Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) one potential GC contender who also eased back a little later.
UAE's Brandon McNulty, seemingly untired by his key role in Tadej Pogačar's victory in Milan-San Remo, took the peloton back up towards Burnett, who shed Veistroffer to continue ahead until 11.5kms to go.
A long line of UAE riders then continued on the front of the bunch on a broad, but perpetually curving road, picking its way perilously halfway up a cliff edge, with the speed both shredding the peloton and forcing the GC riders to stay close to the front in case of late splits or crashes.
Bahrain Victorious, riding for Santiago Buitrago and Lenny Martínez, produced an even bigger acceleration into the final five kilometres. Even so, when the pack paced over the last kick and down into Sant Felíu, Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) was present on the front himself to stay out of danger, with Evenepoel right behind.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
As a rider who lives nearby and knows Catalunya, and this race, like the back of his hand, it was unsurprising to see Visma's Sepp Kuss lead the peloton onto the seafront, across a brief section of cobbles and onto the final sharp rise. Miraculously, there did not appear to be any crashes - although the lack of rain surely helped there in the ultra-tricky finale, and almost half the peloton roared onto the long rise that features every year on stage 1.
NSN, perhaps remembering the win for their rider Nick Schulz on the same finish two years ago, were the fastest onto the 700 metres of 5% uphill, only for Pidcock to blast out of the right-hand side of the disordered pack. However, he was overtaken by Evenepoel, and Godon finally came through to claim the stage win and the first jersey of the race.
Tuesday's stage from the Catalan frontier town of Figueres to Banyoles is equally lumpy, but with only one early classified climb and a much more straightforward finale, the odds of a full bunch sprint are high.
Alasdair Fotheringham has been reporting on cycling since 1991. He has covered every Tour de France since 1992 bar one, as well as numerous other bike races of all shapes and sizes, ranging from the Olympic Games in 2008 to the now sadly defunct Subida a Urkiola hill climb in Spain. As well as working for Cyclingnews, he has also written for The Independent, The Guardian, ProCycling, The Express and Reuters.
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