In the first stage of the Volta Ciclista a Catalunya, with start and finish in Calella, the victory went to one of the three escapees. Bart De Clercq was one them, he became third. With only 500 metres to go, the Lotto Soudal rider tried to leave his fellow companions behind, but they closed the gap. Maciej Paterski defeated Pierre Rolland. Two minutes and forty seconds later Tosh Van der Sande won the bunch sprint for the fourth place. 

Paterski is the first leader in the overall standings. Bart De Clercq is third, eight seconds behind the new leader. The next rider in the GC is Wout Poels at 2’39” from De Clercq.

“If you go to the finish line in such a position, then the win is the first thing you think about," De Clercq said. "I can’t ride a sprint so I had to anticipate. Five hundred metres before the finish I gave it an all or nothing shot. But I got countered immediately and I couldn’t participate in the sprint anymore.

"Being third is nice but of course I’d liked to win. Although I didn’t believe that this breakaway would carry on until the end. Paterski was clearly the fastest of the three of us. I already noticed his power in the mountain sprints that he won.

“ In the beginning of the stage we had the wind in our advantage but that ended as we changed direction. There was one attack after the other. There was a lack of organisation in the peloton. It was clear that there wasn’t a team which wanted to control the race.

"Thomas De Gendt was in one breakaway but they got caught because of the work from Orica – GreenEdge. From that moment the race could start all over again, so I gave it a shot. At first I was alone but when I looked behind I saw two guys.

"We rode a decent tempo with the three of us, but I was surprised with the fourteen minutes lead. Apparently it took a while before a team took its responsibility in the peloton. At the end we started to gamble and our gap narrowed quickly.

“For the overall standings I will see day by day. My current lead is nice but there are hard stages scheduled for the next six days. It will come down to limit my loss in the mountains and then I could get a nice GC. Although it is way too soon to talk big or to start to dream.”