Surprise Win from Day-Long Break
Volta a Catalunya
Stage 1: Lloret de Mar to Lloret de Mar, 166.9km/104mi
By Cathy Mehl
A winner came again from a successful breakaway when HTC-Highroad’s 23-year old former U23 Latvian champion Gatis Smukulis scored a big win in the opening stage at the seven-stage Volta a Catalunya. Coming in a full 28-seconds later were Alessandro Petacchi (Lampre-ISD) and Jose Rojas of Movistar Team. Team RadioShack had six riders arrive safely in this group, including Levi Leipheimer, Chris Horner, Jani Brajkovic, Haimar Zubeldia, Philip Deignan and Ivan Rovny. With no crashes and no punctures, The Shack are off to a good start in the tour of the Catalan region of northeastern Spain.
One-hundred eighty-eight riders from 24 teams took to the start line in Lloret de Mar along the Mediterranean coast. An early break of three riders was quickly established for a fast start in stage one. Comprising the break were Ben Gastauer (AG2R), Smukulis (HTC-Highroad) and Julian Sanchez of Caja Rural. The threesome steadily built a sizable advantage of more than fourteen minutes, with a mostly disinterested peloton chugging along behind at a much slower pace. Halfway through the race the main field finally went to work and the gap came down due to the efforts of Katusha, Lampre and Saxo Bank-Sungard. By 25km to go the gap was 2:40.
With less than 20km to go Sanchez was dropped and the leading duo of Gastauer and Smukulis continued their effort, still holding 1:25 with 10km to go. Despite huge efforts by the chasing teams, the twosome stayed away with Smukulis able to ride away take the solo victory.
Stage 2 on Tuesday is close in length to today’s course at 169.3km, running from Santa Coloma de Farners to Banyoles. With no time trial included in this year’s race, top contenders will need to be attentive, vigilant and on-form in each stage to avoid losing precious seconds toward the overall classification.
Race Fact: For 100 years the Catalan region of Spain has hosted the Volta a Catalunya, making it the third longest running professional race, just behind the Tour de France and the Giro d’Italia.
Top Ten Results
1 SMUKULIS, Gatis LAT HTC-HIGHROAD 4:08:48
2 PETACCHI, Alessandro ITA LAMPRE-ISD a 28
3 ROJAS, Jose J ESP MOVISTAR TEAM
4 URAN, Rigoberto COL SKY PROCYCLING
5 BAKELANDTS, Jan BEL OMEGA PHARMA-LOTTO
6 BOUET, Maxime FRA AG2R LA MONDIALE
7 TIRALONGO, Paolo ITA PRO TEAM ASTANA
8 EVANS, Cadel AUS BMC RACING TEAM
9 MOLLEMA, Bauke NED RABOBANK CYCLING Tea
10 CONTADOR, Alberto ESP SAXO BANK SUNGARD
Team RadioShack Results
20 HORNER, Chris USA
32 LEIPHEIMER, Levi USA
50 DEIGNAN, Philip IRL
52 ZUBELDIA, Haimar ESP
54 BRAJKOVIC, Jani SLO
80 ROVNY, Ivan RUS
152 CARDOSO, Manuel POR a 13:17
185 MACCARTNEY, Jason USA a 14:14
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