Adam Yates wins the Volta a Catalunya

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Adam Yates has crowned a historic win for Ineos Grenadiers at the Volta a Catalunya as the team secured the top three places in a single stage race for the first time in Sky/Ineos' eleven-year history.

Ninth across the final finishing line in the Parc Montjuïc on Sunday, overall winner Yates finished 45 seconds ahead of teammates Richie Porte, who won Volta a Catalunya in 2015, and with Geraint Thomas in third.

This being the centenary edition of the Volta a Catalunya, Spain’s second most important stage race, rendered Yates triumph even more special. After signing for Ineos Grenadiers over the winter, it is also his first overall win in a stage race with his new team.

The final stage win of the 2021 Volta a Catalunya, suspended last year because of the pandemic, went to Thomas De Gendt, after he dropped fellow breakaway Matej Mohorič (Bahrain Victorious) five kilometres from the line to claim his second win in Montjuïc and his fifth in the race.

The Belgian breakaway specialist formed part of a large attack group of 32 riders that went clear well prior to the final six seven kilometre laps of the Montjuic circuit that traditionally decide the stage.

Ineos Grenadiers kept control of the bunch, but with no major threats to Yates GC leadership in the big move, the British squad were happy for the breakaway’s lead to rise to over four minutes as it powered onto the Montjuic circuit for the first time.

De Gendt showed he was on a good day as he reached the top of the circuit on the re-introduced climb Montjuic castle at the head of the breakaways on the first lap and then with some 40 kilometres left to go, he and Mohorič went clear.

While the breakaway group dithered and disintegrated behind, the Belgian and Slovenian carved open a lead of around a minute, virtually guaranteeing themselves the opportunity to go for the win.

However, rather than wait for the sprint,  some five kilometres from the line, De Gendt drove hard on the steepest part of the climb, leaving Mohorič behind and going solo for the 17th win of his career.

“I know in the downhill that Mohorič could get a gap, but he waited each time. But I knew that if I attack and get 20 metres and he'd catch me in the downhill we could sprint for it, but I had to try to drop him because if I'd stayed with hm to the downhill then he'd drop me, and I get second place. I could feel that his speed was dropping a little bit so I had to try and see if I could drop him,” De Gendt said afterwards.

“It was a very different victory to 2013 when I attacked out of the group with four laps to go, this was from much further out. But it’s always great to win the last stage whatever, you go home with a great feeling.

“I just like this race, the terrain, the stages. This year I really liked the TT also. It changes the race and the GC a little bit. Each year I try to come to this race. I think it's my eighth or ninth time and I'm successful almost every time because I just like to do the race here.”

Yates had a fast-moving but relatively straightforward day in the main bunch, as Movistar piled on the pressure but without really making a major attack.

Riding for Alejandro Valverde, fourth overall in the classification and the rider therefore, on paper, most likely to threaten the Ineos Grenadiers GC triple, by the second last lap Movistar and managed to whittle down the British team to the three leaders.

But that was as good as it got. Despite Enric Mas driving hard for Valverde on the Montjuic climb, and the gap on the breakaway halving to two minutes in the process, it proved impossible for the ‘Blues’ to dislodge any of the three from the main favourites group. 

Valverde tried one surprise attack with about three laps to go, but it proved totally ineffective, as Ineos Grenadiers, the strongest team by far throughout the race, showed no sign of relenting their iron grip on the GC on the last day.

Finally, the main GC group of 19 riders crossed the line 1:45 down on De Gendt, with Ineos Grenadiers securing the top three spots overall, a first in the Volta a Catalunya in 51 years, since Catalonia’s greatest ever rider, Miguel Poblet, led home a three-man victory for the Ferrys squad way back in 1960.

“It was a perfect team performance,” Yates, the first British winner of the Volta a Catalunya since Robert Millar in 1985, said afterwards, “and a really special day today. We came here with big ambitions, but getting the top three on the podium is way beyond our expectations.”

While Yates took the overall plaudits, Esteban Chaves (BikeExchange) won the mountain and points classifications, João Almeida (Deceuninck-QuickStep) won best young rider, David de la Cruz (UAE Team Emirates) took the prize as top Catalunyan finisher, and Ineos Grenadiers were the best team.