Warren Barguil tested his form for the Ardennes classics in today's first mountains stage of the Volta a Catalunya. The young Frenchman could only manage 26th but the result was in line with his expectations.
As expected Luka Mezgec lost the overall lead of the Volta Ciclista a Catalunya today on the first mountain finish of the race.
Warren Barguil was climbing well and only lost contact with the leaders in the final kilometre as the overall favourites hit out for glory. He came across the line not far behind in 26th meaning that he will move up the general classification after today.
Mezgec will focus on the sprint opportunities later in the week while Barguil will once again have tomorrow’s mountain test to see how he is climbing and to try and keep moving up the overall classification.
Following the stage, Barguil said a bit about the day:
“To get a result on a stage like today I need to be on my best form, but I am still building at the moment. The team helped to keep me positioned and dropped me off at the front on the lower slopes of the climb.
“I was OK but I feel that my best condition will come for the classics. I finished in a strong group and will see how I am again on tomorrow’s climb.”
“In general the stage was good for us today,” said coach Addy Engels. “The plan was to ride for Warren and get him in a good position at the bottom of the final climb.
“There was a big climb to get over first with about 100km to go and only Cheng Ji was in trouble here. He crashed before the climb. He made it to the finish safely inside the time limit though which was good.
“At the bottom of the final climb there were still five guys with Warren which was really good, including Luka. From here it was up to Warren to see how his legs were and he did a good job against some of the top climbers in the peloton.”
You can read our preview of the fourth stage here and follow our live coverage at 15.15 CET on CyclingQuotes.com/live.
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