Michael Albasini attacked out of the day’s breakaway to take victory on stage one at the Volta a Catalunya.
Swiss rider takes early lead
Michael Albasini attacked out of the day’s breakaway to take victory on stage one at the Volta a Catalunya.
The GreenEDGE rider continued his team’s recent run of momentum with a solo win after attacking his breakaway counterparts over the top of the final third category climb.
Anthony Delaplace (Saur-Sojasun) had attempted to pull back the Swiss attacker alongside Nicolas Edet (Cofidis) before striking out on his own, finishing 42 seconds back while Edet rolled in third.
The peloton arrived 1:32 later into Calella after late efforts to peg back Albasini with seven stages and a number of kilometres remaining in the WorldTour event.
The profile of the day always looked like it could play into the hands of a breakaway, while back in the peloton no team appeared willing to take the race by the scruff of the neck.
The Alt de Collsacreu saw the winning move occur as the break split, Albasini pushing onwards over the top of the climb to move into the leader’s jersey.
Opening salvo
The undulating stage race kicked off with a relatively short stage at 138.9 kilometres, yet a fast start made it tough for a breakaway to succeed in the early going.
At 46km the intermediate sprint finally saw a split form in the bunch, five men breaking clear and quickly building out a gap of six minutes and five seconds as the peloton sat up in acceptance.
Three categorised climbs made up the day, the second of which saw the weather close in as the peloton hit the first category Alt del Collformic with riders buffeted by rain and hail.
Heading into the closing stages Movistar took to the front with help from Astana, yet with no team seeming willing to drive things along as a game of chess began in the bunch heading onto the final climb.
After Albasini made his move two chase duos formed out of the remaining escapees, neither able to bring back the Swiss rider yet Ben Gastauer (AG2R-La Mondiale) still claimed fifth despite being swallowed up by the field sprint as he crossed the stripe.
