De Gendt solos into the lead in the opening stage of the «Volta»

March 25 th 2019 - 20:24 [GMT + 1]

Thomas De Gendt (Lotto-Soudal) still wants to show what he is made of; and once again he has managed to prove it as one of the great riders on this Volta, dominating what has been a great cycling day in Calella. If there is someone in the peloton capable of lifting the crowd, it is the Belgian rider, who prevailed over his opponents in a solo effort on the first stage of the 99th edition of the Volta a Catalunya after riding 50 kilometres ahead of pursuers and positioning himself as the first leader of the race with a quite remarkable lead of nearly three minutes.

De Gendt, who knows exactly what it feels like to win in Catalonia (after victories in Montjuïc in 2012, in Port Ainé in 2016 and yet another spectacular stage win in solo last year on his way to Camprodon), has today added his fourth victory. This was made all the more special as he is now wearing the leader’s jersey, after breaking away from a group of six riders in the last third of the race, heading towards the finish line alone, impeding virtually any of the favourites from regaining the time lost.

The opening stage of the race, starting and finishing in Calella, as we’ve become used to in the last few years was 163.7 kilometres long, but was tougher than previous years, going over Collsacreu (3rd category climb), Santa Fe del Montseny (1st category), El Muntanyà (1st category), Coll Formic (1st category) before crossing Collsacreu one last time, just 18.2 kilometres from the finish line. The Belgian genius did the last two climbs in his signature style, pulling away from his breakaway companions.

The move was initiated by Ángel Madrazo (Burgos-BH) in the first part of the stage where he was accompanied by De Gendt and other renowned riders, always keen to be noticed in breakaways: Alexis Gougeard (Ag2r La Mondiale), Álvaro Cuadros (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA), Huub Duijn (Roompot-Charles) and Luis Ángel Maté (Cofidis) who was the only rider keeping the pace of the Belgian rider. It was a strong group capable of creating a gap of more than four minutes over the peloton which, despite efforts from the teams of sprinters, was barely able to close the gap.

The second rider to cross the line in Calella today was Maximilian Schachamnn (Bora-hansgrohe), who was the winner of last year’s stage in Torrefarrera, and who was today awarded the best young rider’s jersey thanks to a solo attack entering Calella. Four seconds later, the main group crossed the line led by the Slovenian rider Griega Bole (Baréin-Merida), who snatched third place in a sprint battle with Michael Matthews (Team Sunweb) and the Basque rider Mikel Aristi (Euskadi-Murias). For now, De Gent is the overall race leader, points leader and KOM, with a 2:58 lead before the second stage which will take the riders from Mataró to Sant Feliu de Guíxols in a 179.8-kilometre stage with two third category climbs.

Thomas De Gendt ganador de la  primera etapa de la Volta a Catalunya que se ha disputado  en Calella
Thomas De Gendt ganador de la primera etapa de la Volta a Catalunya que se ha disputado en Calella © A.S.O.

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