Mezgec sprints to Catalunya race lead

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Luka Mezgec (Giant-Shimano) prevailed in the field sprint finale of stage 1 at the Volta Ciclista a Catalunya and earned the first leader's jersey at the seven-day Spanish WorldTour race.

The on-form Slovenian, a winner three days prior in Belgium at the Handzame Classic, triumphed ahead of Leigh Howard (Orica GreenEdge) and Julian Alaphilippe (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) in Calella.

"Winning here has been a target for me since the start of the season and to do it on the opening stage is just perfect," said Mezgec. "It was a hard day today and I suffered a bit on the climbs but the guys kept me going and supported me well.

"With 3km to go Warren Barguil brought me into position and then after that Georg Preidler took me right to the front with 1km to race. I lost a few places and had to go from far out to get through. Someone tried to box me in against the barriers but I was still able to get it at the end."

With time bonuses factored in, Mezgec now leads the general classification by four seconds over Howard and six seconds ahead of Alaphilippe.

In a race heavily populated with the pro peloton's star general classification riders only two potential overall contenders lost time on the opening stage as both Richie Porte (Sky) and Haimar Zubeldia (Trek Factory Racing) crossed the line among a 13-man group almost three minutes off the pace.

The 169.7km stage starting and finishing in Calella was dominated by a two-man break comprised of Romain Lemarchand (Cofidis, Solutions Credits) and Boris Vallee (Lotto Belisol) as the pair slipped away from the peloton after 13km of racing. The duo's advantage reached a maximum of eight minutes over the peloton, but on the ascent of the day's penultimate climb, the category 1 Alt de Montseny at 41.7km to go, their lead had dropped to less than a minute.

Near the top of the climb Amets Txurruka (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) attacked alone from the peloton and bridged across to the two leaders on the descent. The fresh legs of the Spaniard were a welcome addition to the break, but a concerted chase from the peloton neutralised the three leaders early on the day's final climb, the category 3 Alt de Collsacreu positioned 18.5km from the finish.

Lemarchand and Vallee would not end the day empty-handed, however, as the Cofidis rider earned both the mountains classification jersey as well as the special sprint jersey in honour of the late Miguel Poblet (a two-time Catalunya winner as well as former race director) while the Lotto Belisol rider claimed both of the stage's intermediate sprints to earn that classification's leader's jersey.

With the early break now over there was an immediate counterattack from Paul Martens (Belkin) and the German was soon joined by Julian Arredondo (Trek Factory Racing) and Gianluca Brambilla (Omega Pharma-QuickStep). The lead trio could only gain a handful of seconds and would be caught in the approach to the KOM.

Mikael Cherel (AG2R La Mondiale) was the next to escape the peloton and the Frenchman would be joined by compatriot Romain Hardy (Cofidis, Solutions Credits) and Wilco Kelderman (Belkin) on the descent.

The break's lead grew to 20 seconds, but disaster struck at a roundabout with approximately 10km remaining as both Cherel and Hardy took a wrong turn and rode off the course. As the parcours turned onto the wide open coastal highway Kelderman was now left alone in the lead and the Dutchman's escape came to naught inside the final five kilometres.

In the previous two opening day stages in Calella breakaways had stayed away through to the finish, but this time around the lead-out efforts kept the peloton together in the slightly rolling finale.

Cannondale led the peloton under the flamme rouge with Orica GreenEdge then challenging the Italian squad along the right side of the road. Giant-Shimano hit the front on the left side of the road on the final straight and the finishing kick of Mezgec proved too much for the rest of the sprinters on the day.

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