Not only was it an unusual day in professional racing because the break succeeded all the way to the finish line, but the gap was a whopping 2.40 to the main field, an almost unheard of chunk of time to claim back in the stages to come. Today’s stage 1 from Calella to Calella (185 km) set the stage for an interesting and aggressive week of racing still to come in Spain’s oldest stage race, the 95th Volta a Catalunya. 

"We were happy to have Vorobyev in the original break and really did not understand why Orica-GreenEdge chased so hard to bring them back, especially when they did not chase at all when the next three went away. In general there were many strange team tactics in play today," said Team Katusha director Dmitry Konyshev. 

It took more than 60 km before a group of three riders made a successful breakaway from the main field. Team Katusha’s Anton Vorobyev had been part of an earlier 5-man effort, but they were brought back before the trio of riders created a gap that went out to more than 13 minutes.  Despite a chase from the main field, chock full of general classification contenders, the gap held strong and the three riders arrived back in Calella with more than two minutes in hand. Maciej Paterski (CCC Sprandi Polkowice) out-sprinted Pierre Rolland (Europcar) and Bart De Clercq (Lotto Soudal) to claim a win. Eduard Vorganov was the best Katusha rider with 18th position. Paterski will wear the green and white jersey of the overall race leader on Tuesday’s stage 2. 

Tomorrow’s stage two begins in Mataró and ends in Olot after 192 km. There is a category 3 climb near the end that could be used to pull back overall time if an aggressive rider or team will take control of the race in the last 50 km and mount a fierce effort to bring the Volta a Catalunya back under control.