The breakaway, containing skilled climbers, was let off its leash at stage 1 of Volta a Catalunya and allowed to run wild before the peloton finally reached an agreement on the division of labor at the front of the bunch. The peloton, with all the main GC favorites, managed to regain lost time and finished 2:40 down on stage winner Maciej Paterski.
 
The long breakaway of stage 1 survived to the finish line after having had a ten-minute advantage going into the final part of the stage. The breakaway, with the likes of Pierre Rolland, who can now potentially hamper the favorites GC-ambitions, ultimately finished 2:40 ahead of the peloton. Alberto Contador tells after the stage that the time difference now has to be taken seriously.
 
“The peloton was pulling hard, really hard, in an unbelievable way! It was indeed surprising that the gap wasn't narrowing at all. At the end, we gave all we had and managed to bring the gap down. However, given the stages we have ahead, that difference isn't a joke at all. We will now have to take every day as it comes”, says Contador before adding about the caliber of the riders now in the lead:
 
“It's true they are first-rate riders and they will manage the 2:40-minute advantage that they have in the best way possible. We will now see what opportunities the parcours will offer us but it is true that it isn't an ideal situation”

Steven de Jongh, Tinkoff-Saxo’s sports director, explains the tactical situation that led to the big time gap.
 
“The breakaway of the day containing three guys got a time gap of more than 10 minutes before some of the teams decided to take to the front. However, they didn’t pull with 100 percent dedication, so before the first category climb the situation was somewhat status quo”, says Steven de Jongh and adds:
 
“It’s not always up to us to lead the peloton and there’re teams with very strong lineups such as Sky. And it wasn’t until the first category climb, where Sky and Movistar started to pull that the time gap decreased. Then we decided to give them a hand and joined the chase with 25km to go”.
 
The breakaway containing Bart De Clercq (Lotto-Soudal), Pierre Rolland (Europcar) and Maciej Paterski (CCC) eventually reached the finish line after 191km of racing from and to Calella. Here, Paterski won the sprint in front of his breakaway companions.

Entering the final 25km of the stage, the breakaway had around 8 minutes and the peloton realized that it was a matter of limiting the time loss. However, after a fast chase, the peloton could breath a sigh of relief as the gap had come down by more than five minutes to 2:40 at the finish line.
 
“It’s normal that the peloton can regain a lot of time at the end. The chase had been unorganized, so there were a lot of fresh guys to pull really hard including us in the last part. I would say that the gap in the GC to the three guys is now manageable but it will still require some hard riding in the mountains”, elaborates the Tinkoff-Saxo sports director.