Tom Stamsnijder featured in the day’s breakaway on a rainy second stage of the Volta Ciclista a Catalunya and despite a long push to try and repeat the feats of the escape on the previous day’ stage, it was not to be and he was caught with around 20km to go.

Stamsnijder pulled clear with three others in what was one of the first attacks of the day, before spending over 160km out the front of the race trying to forge an advantage. The four worked well together but after allowing the break far too much leeway yesterday, the peloton was keen to keep the break in close check today, with a maximum advantage of just under four minutes.

The race all came back together in the final 20km and over the tough hill on the approach to the finishing town of Olot the pace of the peloton saw many of the sprinters go out the back of the bunch. Although wet, the run in to the finish was fairly straight forward and a lined up, reduced bunch approached the line before sprinting out the stage win, with Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) coming through fastest. Georg Preidler was first home for Team Giant-Alpecin in 14th place as the finishing drag proved too much for Luka Mezgec who faded to finish 30th. These two were also accompanied by Warren Barguil in the lead group as he continues to push for a strong overall GC result here in Catalunya.

After the stage Addy Engels, team coach at the race, explained what happened: “Stammie did a good ride to get into the early break today – we wanted to be there to avoid having to support the chase behind. After yesterday though it was going to be hard for them to stay away but he rode well out front and took pressure off behind.

“The final was hard and the pace was kept high at the front so the bunch was strung out making it hard to move up. We had three guys left in the front group with Warren, Luka and Georg, but Luka was on the limit and couldn’t get into position for the sprint.”

Mezgec added after returning to the team bus: “The last 20km to the finish was really hard. I dug deep and tried to stay with the bunch but the last 5km kept going up and I couldn’t move up. I stayed in the position that I finished the last climb in.

“It’s hard to gauge how the legs are when you have rain all day like today but it is definitely better than in Tirreno – I didn’t think that one week of flu would affect my shape for so long. But that’s cycling and if you’re not 100% healthy it is hard to keep your shape.”