Volta a Catalunya: Maciej Paterski beats Pierre Rolland on stage one

Maciej Paterski out-sprinted his two breakaway companions to take victory

Breakaway rider Maciej Paterski won stage one of the Volta a Catalunya in Spain on Monday just a day after riding 293km and finishing 22nd at Milan-San Remo.

Paterski (CCC Sprandi Polkowice) escaped from the peloton along with Bart de Clerq (Lotto Soudal) and Pierre Rolland (Europcar) after around 55km of the 191.1km stage and the trio built up a lead of around 13 minutes.

It was enough for them to hang on to the finish in Calella, where Paterski produced the fastest sprint to beat Rolland into second and De Clerq into third.

It was a remarkable show of endurance from the Pole, who has now raced 478.2km in two days, and the bonus seconds he collected for the win saw him open up a four-second lead over Rolland at the top of the general classification.

The peloton finished 2min 40sec behind the front three, with Chris Froome (Team Sky) and arch rival Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) both safely placed up near the head of the bunch.

However, both have been put on the back foot by Rolland in particular, who is an accomplished climber and now has a healthy advantage to take into the race’s key mountain stages later in the week.

There are three Team Sky riders placed fourth, fifth and sixth overall, after Wout Poels, Nicolas Roche and Froome took the three, two and one bonus seconds on offer at an intermediate sprint.

The race continues on Tuesday with a rolling 191.8km second stage from Mataro to Olot.

Stage one result

1 Maciej Paterski (Pol) CCC Sprandi Polkowice, 4:33:41
2 Pierre Rolland (Fra) Europcar, same time
3 Bart de Clerq (Bel) Lotto Soudal, +2secs
4 Tosh van der Sande (Bel) Lotto Soudal, +2:40
5 Julian Alaphilippe (Fra) Etixx – Quick-Step, st
6 Paolo Tiralongo (Ita) Astana, st
7 Enrico Gasparotto (Ita) Wanty-Groupe Gobert, st
8 Bryan Coquard (Fra) Europcar, st
9 Carlos Barbero (Esp) Caja Rural-Seguros RGA, st
10 Julien Simon (Fra) Cofidis, st
Selected other
11 Chris Froome (GB) Team Sky, st

General classification

1 Maciej Paterski (Pol) CCC Sprandi Polkowice, 4:33:31
2 Pierre Rolland (Fra) Europcar, +4secs
3 Bart de Clerq (Bel) Lotto Soudal, +8
4 Wout Poels (Ned) Team Sky, +2:47
5 Nicolas Roche (Irl) Team Sky, +2:48
6 Chris Froome (GB) Team Sky, +2:49
7 Tosh van der Sande (Bel) Lotto Soudal, +2:50
8 Julian Alaphilippe (Fra) Etixx – Quick-Step, st
9 Paolo Tiralongo (Ita) Astana, st
10 Enrico Gasparotto (Ita) Wanty-Groupe Gobert, st