CCC Sprandi Polkowice riders were very active on the last day of Volta Ciclista a Catalunya. Marek Rutkiewicz spent most of the stage in the 3-man breakaway and Maciej Paterski tried a late move.

"Many riders wanted to get into the escape early on. In every move there was a representative of CCC Sprandi Polkowie though. I managed to break clear 40 km into the stage. The peloton was not letting us go away too far, because Alejandro Valverde wanted to win the general classfication. The escapee from Team Colombia was not giving maximum effort. We thought that he was not feeling very well but in the end he attacked. If we all worked together we could have created a bigger gap and our chances would be higher," Marek Rutkiewicz said.

"This year’s edition of the Volta a Catalunya was the fastest among all I’ve taken part in. I’ve raced in 3 editions as a rider in orange and it has never been so fast. In the previous years everyone waited until the final climb. This time many teams tried their moves often in the middle of the stage, because of the small gaps in the GC. 

"The first day of Volta a Catalunya was not easy for me. I came back to racing after 3 weeks and an illness. I didn’t feel very well on the opening stage, but that was the day when Maciej Paterski did amazing race and took the win. In the next days we were working to protect the lead, and after we lost the jersey we were trying to break away. It was a very tough race," he summed up.

Despite high pace in the first hour of racing, Marek Rutkiewicz was able to get into the break of the day. He attacked with David Arroyo (Caja Rural) and Walter Pedraza (Colombia). The stage was short, only 126km and the bunch had its eye on the advantage and never let it increase to more than 2 minutes.

The trio worked well and Rutkiewicz was setting a strong pace in the escape. They started the final 20km with a 1-minute lead. The bunch was not going to let the escapees to get to the finish and caught Rutkiewicz’s group with 15km to go.

The next move came from Daniel Martin, but his ride at the head of the race didn’t last long. With 5km remaining Maciej Paterski accelerated. Alejandro Valverde followed him, passed and went away solo. His try was not successful either. Martin pulled away one more time but it came down to sprint from a big group. Valverde was the fastest. He beat Bryan Coquard and Sergiei Chernetski. Maciej Paterski was the top “orange” finisher, in 39th place.

Richie Porte protected his GC lead and took the overall victory. Valverde completed Volta a Catalunya in 2nd and Domenico Pozzovivo in 3rd. Paterski finished in 42nd.