Meersman wins opening stage at Volta Ciclista a Catalunya

Gianni Meersman (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) won the opening stage at the Volta Ciclista a Catalunya from an elite 13-rider selection. Valerio Agnoli (Astana) and Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) rounded out the top three in the sprint to the finish in Calella.

On a day where it seemed likely the winner would emerge from a full-on field sprint finale, Team Sky had other plans and came to the fore on the day's final climb, the category 3-rated Alt de Collsacreu, whose summit was situated 18km from the finish. The elastic stretched on the ascent and ultimately snapped on the technical descent, with Sky's Bradley Wiggins setting a furious pace which ultimately drew out 12 other riders. Sky placed three riders in the escape, the most of any team, and kept the tempo high to ensure the peloton would not make contact.

By the time Koldo Fernandez (Garmin-Sharp) prevailed in the field sprint for 14th place, 28 seconds had passed since Meersman took stage honours.

Meersman's first victory of the 2013 season also earned the Omega Pharma-Quick Step rider the first leader's jersey at the Spanish WorldTour event. With time bonuses factored in the 27-year-old Belgian leads Agnoli by four seconds and Valverde by six seconds on general classification.

The peloton was afforded a preview of the finale earlier in the stage and Meersman knew exactly what to do to vie for victory.

"During the race we passed through the finish line, so I knew the final climb and the descent," said Meersman. "I knew the descent was a technical one and I needed to stay near the front. I did a good job on the descent and then in the final, when I arrived at the sprint I was in the last position. I wanted no one to surprise me. So, I launched the sprint very, very early — several hundred metres from the finish. After that, I didn't think of anything but pulling and trying to do my best.

"This morning in our team briefing Rik Van Slycke said the day would either be for me or Andy Fenn," said Meersman. "So, it was my day and I am so happy."

The peloton enjoyed brilliant sunshine and blue skies on the first day of racing at the Volta Ciclista a Catalunya, quite a change of pace for the handful of riders who arrived at the start after contesting a frigid, miserable Milan-San Remo the day before. The first break formed early in the day with Cristiano Salerno (Cannondale) escaping the peloton 15km into the stage. The Italian was soon joined by Christian Meier (Orica-GreenEdge) and with the peloton not eager to chase the duo quickly found themselves more than eight minutes ahead of the field.

Salerno and Meier's lead maxed out at 8:40, 38km into the stage, but once the chase began in earnest the duo's advantage began to decrease on the rolling parcours. Omega Pharma-Quick Step was the first to commit riders to the pursuit and the Belgian ProTeam was eventually joined by Movistar and then Vacansoleil-DCM at the head of the peloton.

The break's lead was kept at a manageable five minutes but inside the final 50km their advantage began to evaporate. Salerno led Meier over the penultimate climb of Monstoriu Alt at 117.5km while Rafael Valls (Vacansoleil-DCM) reached the summit at the head of the peloton 3:10 in arrears.

Ten kilometres later Salerno and Meier's lead was cut to less than two minutes and on the slopes of the day's fifth and final categorised climb, the category 3 Alt de Collsacreu, they were absorbed back into the peloton.

Team Sky pushed the pace on the ascent with Lopez, Rigoberto Uran and Cataldo leading the peloton over the final KOM and continued to force the issue on the descent with reigning Tour de France champion Bradley Wiggins prominent at the head of the race. Sky's efforts managed to force a 13-rider selection with Wiggins, David Lopez and Dario Cataldo all present from the British ProTeam. Many of the race's GC contenders marked the move with former Volta Ciclista a Catalunya champions Alejandro Valverde (Movistar), Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) and Michele Scarponi (Lampre-Merida) in the mix along with Meersman, Agnoli, Daniel Martin (Garmin-Sharp), Danilo Wyss (BMC), Robert Gesink (Blanco), Przemyslaw Niemiec (Lampre-Merida) and Jose Herrada (Movistar).

Sky kept the tempo high on the flat run-in to the finish with Wiggins leading out the sprint. Daniel Martin jumped in a bid for victory but Meersman's finishing kick was too strong in the closing metres, earning the Belgian his first victory since stage 4 of Paris-Nice more than a year ago.