With Allan Davis sick and Michael Matthews ruled out of the race by a freak accident, Brett Lancaster (Orica-GreenEdge) got a rare opportunity to sprint for himself in today's second stage of the Volta a Catalunya. He ended up 3rd, but rued the missed opportunity to get a rare personal triumph.

Brett Lancaster is one of the peloton's most gifted domestiques, and he normally plays a crucial role in setting up the numerous sprinters in the Australian team. He is the consummate teammate who not even considers going for personal glory.

With the team's two sprinters both ruled out, he suddenly finds himself in a position as the man to deliver the results for the team in the bunch kicks in this year's Volta a Catalunya. Today he proved his worth with a strong 3rd place finish in the second stage.

The role came as somewhat of a surprise for the former track specialist.

"Coming into the race, I wasn’t expecting to sprint for the team," he said. "Michael Matthews had a bit of an accident with hot tea the weekend before the race. He burnt himself badly, and he couldn’t start. Allan [Davis] is quite sick, so even finishing each day of racing has been hard for him. It’s a rare situation that’s given me the opportunity to sprint yesterday and today."

A missed opportunity

With yesterday's surprise attack from the Sky team and the subsequent successful 13-man move, he missed out on his first opportunity. With few chances to be the team leader, he rued not being able to finish off the strong preparation of teammate Simon Gerrans.

"Today went better than stage one," he said. "Yesterday, Simon Gerrans kept me up near the front over the climb towards the finish. Although we were close the front, we weren't on the front, and we saw 12 guys skip away (it was actually a 13-man move, ed.). That was a blistering pace yesterday at the end up and down the climb, and we couldn't bring them back. I could sprint from the bunch behind, but it wasn't for the win - it was for 13th place (14th place, ed.)"

Today, the former wearer of the maglia rosa in the 2005 Giro d'Italia finally got his chance to sprint for the win. He was set up perfectly by his teammates.

" Credit to my teammates for helping me out," he told. "Everybody did their bit. Simon (Gerrans, ed.) was really good again, and Sam Bewley gave it his everything. We did four tight little laps at the end, and there was a very sharp right-hand corner at the one kilometre mark. The sprint was slightly uphill, and everyone had a lot of lactic in their legs by that point."

Waited too long

Despite the good preparation, his lack of sprint experience may have cost him an even better result. He ended up waiting too long and only blamed himself for the lost opportunity.

" I was feeling good, and my teammates had set me up in fourth position. Like I said, I haven’t sprinted for myself in quite a long time. I’m used to leading out. I was trying to put myself into the mindset that I was actually sprinting and that I needed to be patient. In the end, I waited too long. It was just that 20 metres or fraction of a second that I waited, and  (Daniele Ratto of, ed.) Cannondale saw me step out. He stepped into me. I clipped his wheel, and it curbed my speed. It gave a few guys time to get a jump on me, and I couldn’t quite get them back. I picked up one place to finish third. The team set me up perfectly. It was no one's fault but my own what happened at the end."

A podium place is a rare achievement for the Australian, but he had the feeling that it could have been much more. That thought will hunt him for some time.

"Third is okay, but the sprint will run through my head a million times because I know I should have gone earlier," he said. "I had my wife and kids at the finish line today. She pulled them out of school to watch me race. It would have been fantastic to have them see me get the win even thought I know they were happy to get to see me at all.

"I’ll be replaying that finish a few times in my head tonight – woulda, should, coulda – but yeah, third’s okay, I guess."

Meier in the day's break

Before Lancaster showed his legs in the final sprint, the team had played a key role in much of the day's early action. For the second consecutive day, teammate Cristian Meier was involved in the day's main breakaway. While ultimately unsuccessful, his effort extended his lead in the sprints competition, and he now has a firm grip on the corresponding jersey.

Lancaster was impressed by his teammate's desire to go on the attack just 24 hours after a long day in the front.

"I’m not sure the team sent him up the road," Lancaster said. "I think he raised his hand for that. Cristian is mentally tough. He went deep yesterday with such a long ride out front, and then he went out there today and did it again. Credit to him for going out there and getting those points. He’s won all the intermediate sprints so far, so we’ll just need to pick up a few points here or there for him to keep it. If he manages to get in one more breakaway, he’ll take out that jersey for sure."

Tomorrow, the race continues with the first of two consecutive mountain stages, and the first big battle among the favourites is expected. With no GC aspirations, Orica-GreenEdge will look to get through the next two days as best they can while saving energy for the last three stages. Lancaster will probably get another opportunity on Friday where the sprinters are again expected to kick into action.

Starting at 15.15, you can follow all the action from tomorrow's big mountain battle on CyclingQuotes.com/live.