Volta a Catalunya: van Garderen wins queen stage

Tejay van Garderen (BMC) bounced back from what he called the “most horrifying moment of my career” with a vengeance on Thursday, overcoming a bad crash on stage three of the Volta Ciclista a Catalunya to claim his second mountain top victory in the race in as many years. Van Garderen narrowly fended off a late counter-attack by Sky’s Richie Porte, who also has moved up to second overall, 21 seconds behind new leader Bart de Clercq of Lotto-Soudal.

Van Garderen went over a guardrail on a descent some 35 kilometres from the finish on Wednesday, and although uninjured he lost 16 minutes overall. Three kilometres from the summit finish at La Molina ski station in the Pyrenees on Thursday, however, it was a very different story as the BMC Racing Team rider blasted away from a 20 strong group of favourites.

Keeping a steady pace on the short but challenging final ascent, Van Garderen crossed the line to claim his first win, and BMC Racing’s fourth, of the 2015 season. As he said afterwards, the fight for the overall might not be possible, but this was a very satisfying win nonetheless.

“I have a very up and down relationship with this race, I was unfortunate with the crash, but I had minimal damage and today put everything into getting a stage win,” the American said. “I had no chance with the overall, but I told the team last night we should stay positive, go for another stage win and keep the racing aggressive.”

Van Garderen’s move came shortly after a devastating attack by Vasil Kiryenka of Sky had put paid to the hopes of the last of two day long breakaways, Tom Danielson (Cannondale-Garmin) and double Austrian national champion Riccardo Zoidl (Trek Factory Racing).

Danielson and Zoidl had broken away with three other riders, Jose Herrada (Movistar), Jerome Coppel (IAM Cycling) and Loic Chetout (Cofidis) almost as soon as the starting whistle blew on a 188 km stage. The day grew colder and cloudier, but thankfully not wetter as the Volta tackled four classified Pyrenean ascents, three of them first category and the hardest the race’s only Hors Categorie climb, the 21 kilometre La Creueta, which immediately preceded the much shorter climb to La Molina.

With Herrada dropped at the foot of the Creueta, Danielson and Zoidl reached its summit with just over a minute to spare on the chasing group, an advantage that permitted the American veteran to claim maximum points and the lead in the Volta's King of the Mountains competition. The swooping, long descent that followed saw Sky at the head of a group of some two dozen riders, although Chris Froome, having wavered already on stage three, was not amongst them after being dropped on la Creueta, and nor was race leader Pierre Rolland (Europcar), who eventually lost five mintues.

Having pegged the two-man break back to 40 seconds at the foot of La Molina, Kiryenka’s sudden lunge was followed by an almost equally abrupt attack by Dan Martin (Cannondale-Garmin), but it was Contador’s move, three kilometres from the line, that caused the most damage, scattering his rivals behind him.

Sweeping past Kiryenka, who seemingly sat up to wait for Porte, Contador came within five seconds of van Garderen before wavering slightly. At the same time, Kiryenka provided Porte all the support the Tasmanian needed to regain contact with Contador and then roar past him within of the finish. The Volta is Contador’s last race before the Giro, and seeing one of his key rivals for the corsa rosa outgun him on this vital last test, albeit on a climb which did the Spaniard few favours, will not have improved his morale.

Meanwhile, Van Garderen remained tantalisingly out of reach, and a strong ride - albeit one completely ignored by the race’s tv cameras - by Lotto-Soudal’s Bart de Clercq leaves the Belgian Giro 2011 stage winner on top of the overall classfiication. But Porte’s defeat of Contador and strategic racing allowed the 2015 Paris-Nice winner to move into second overall, 21 seconds behind, whilst Contador moves into fifth, 28 seconds back.

On paper, with three fairly straightforward stages remaining and as the last survivor atop of the general classification from the stage one three-man breakaway, De Clercq is well on track for the biggest win of his career. Last year’s Volta, on a very similar route, was decided by four seconds and given there was no change after overall winner Joaquim Rodriguez clinched that advantage at today’s same finish at La Molina, the Belgian looks to be ideally placed.

However the Lotto-Soudal race leader already lost one useful rider, Giro podium finisher Tomas de Gent who abandoned today, and Friday’s 195.4 kilometre stage from Alp to Valls, through rolling terrain, is the best of all the remaining stages for aggressive rivals to test his team’s strength. Time bonuses, too, on offer on all the stages, could continue to add to the unpredictability of a Volta which, despite the lack of a interesting route, is still producing some very exciting racing.

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