The opening stage of the Volta a Catalunya did not go as hoped for the Groupama-FDJ cycling team. Some action occurred already on day 1 and only Sébastien Reichenbach was able to stay with the main peloton to the finish. The Swiss climber crossed the line about fifteen seconds after Andreas Kron took the win from a breakaway. The team now plans to be aggressive for the rest of the week.
“A small warning”, Philippe Mauduit
As in the last ten years, stage 1 of the Volta a Catalunya was designed around Calella on Monday. In this 2021 edition, the route included the climbs of Port de les Guilleries and Port de Santa Fe del Montseny at the halfway point, making the day’s outcome quite unsure. “On this race, there is always a small chance that the breakaway makes it on the first stage,” Philippe Mauduit recalled. “We told our guys to follow the big moves, and they proved quite offensive at the start of the race”. However, only four riders made it to the front group after twenty minutes or so. It did not include a rider from the team but there were Sylvain Moniquet, a former rider from the “Conti”, as well as Natnael Berhane (Cofidis), Rein Taaramäe (Intermarché-Wanty Gobert) and Gotzon Martin (Euskaltel-Euskadi). It also got quite clear early on that the breakaway would not get a lot of freedom, as Peter Sagan’s teammates immediately took the lead and never allowed the gap to grow. There was only a two-minute difference after the first climb, with 80 kilometers to go, a few moments before the race took off starting the Port de Sante Fe del Montseny (12.2 km at 4%).
“When Movistar started to accelerate at the bottom of the climb, they did it really strongly,” told Philippe. “William, Lada, Simon and Antoine were in a pretty good position, but the climbers weren’t there with them. Seb was still up enough in the line to follow the main peloton but Attila and Matteo were too far behind to be in the good move. They learned the hard way they had to stay with their mates. This is a little warning for them.” From then on, Sébastien Reichenbach was the only one from the team to follow the high pace of the bunch, whether in the climb or in the long downhill. Later, a few attacks occurred, four riders managed to break away with twenty kilometers to go and eventually played the victory. Andreas Kron claimed the day’s win in a four men sprint while the peloton finished sixteen seconds later. “Seb saves the day a bit, but this morning we were obviously hoping to have more than one rider in the right peloton,” confessed Philippe. “That being said, it’s true that Matteo and Attila had not raced for three weeks. When you get to such a high-level race and that the pace is super high on day 1, you can be in trouble indeed. Several things can explain why they were unable to keep up with the first group. It’s still a shame not to be in a bunch of 80 guys when you’re a good climber”.
“Our goals are stages 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7”, Philippe Mauduit
Attila Valter got to the line a few minutes after the main peloton and confirmed his sports director’s words. “It was far from good today,” he said. “I had a bad position when Movistar started to pull. I was expecting to build the tempo later on the climb and hoped that I had time to get to the front, but that was not the case. I tried to hang on but also the legs were not super to be honest. In a stage like this, I should indeed stay in the front, but in such a field I think it’s too early anyway for me to fight for the GC. I’m now focusing on some stages”. This will actually be the team’s general state of mind in the coming days, except for Tuesday as a time trial is planned around Banyoles (18,5 km). “They are going to do it properly but we don’t want them to give 100% if that means they’ll struggle the next day,” explained Philippe. “Our goals are now stages 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7. From this evening already, we need to be positive again, to get back into business and to set ourselves new challenges. Being eight minutes down on GC is potentially better if we want to have a chance to go in a breakaway. Every day will bring us new opportunities.”
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