Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) made use of his excellent puncheur skills to open up a small gap over Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) in today's first mountain stage of the Volta a Catalunya. With a few seconds in hand, the Spaniard is happy that he can allow himself to ride defensively in tomorrow's queen stage.

Incredible work from the Katusha Team on the first of two mountaintop finishes in the 2014 La Volta paid off in a big way on Wednesday with Joaquim Rodriguez taking both the stage win and the overall lead in the general classification.

It was the first win of the season for the Spanish rider and second in four days for the Russian Global Cycling Project after Sunday’s victory from Alexander Kristoff in Milano-Sanremo. The win brings the total victories for Katusha Team to three for the 2014 season.

"Everything went fine the entire day," Rodriguez said. "I spoke with my teammates and asked them to keep control of the break and they did a perfect job. At 2 km from the finish Dani Moreno did the last effort that was important to make our group smaller and smaller. When Froome attacked, I saw that he missed the power to win. When he sat down in the saddle again, I attacked. The last kilometer was marvelous."

Sports director Dmitry Konyshev had nothing but praise for his Katusha Team:

“It was an amazing job from Maxim Belkov. On his own he kept control over the break. When we came into the last 30 kilometers, Pavel Brutt, Angel Vicioso and Eduard Vorganov started to make a higher tempo in the group. And then Caruso and Moreno prepared the platform for Purito. Tactically our plan worked."

The 162.9km stage began in Banyoles and ended in the snowfields at La Molina after almost five hours of racing and a second day of cold weather for the peloton. A group of six riders was featured in the long breakaway over the category 1 and HC climbs in the first part of the course but a large group of riders was all together for the last category 1 pitch, thanks to the work of several teams, including the great impact of the riders of Katusha Team.

The final climb at 5.3 km to go showed Rodriguez at his finest, patiently waiting in the wheel of teammate Dani Moreno until the final kilometer of racing. Responding first to an attack by Chris Froome (Sky), ‘Purito’ pulled to the left at 500 meters to go and increased his speed, taking on the final hairpin turns with ease to arrive at the finish line arms raised in victory.

Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) and Nairo Quintana of Movistar completed the top three at five- and nine-seconds behind Rodriguez.

"It was not so easy,” explained Joaquim Rodriguez. “In the descent to La Molina I thought I was on the North Pole, it was so cold. Fortunately I could take some clothes at the top and I was well protected. And it’s good there was no rain. 

"Tomorrow will be the queen stage and harder than today, but also a good day for me and I can ride in defensive mode. I took five seconds today. That is not so much, but when the favorites stay together, I will keep my advantage.”

Director Konyshev sees promise in the days to come:

"Now we can control tomorrow, but it would also be good to take extra time. I think tomorrow’s stage suits Purito even better than today. With some extra seconds we can be a bit more relaxed the last two days when there are bonification seconds at the finish line."

Mountaintop finishes don’t offer time bonuses, relying instead on real time.

With four stages still to race, including tomorrow’s second day in the high mountains, Joaquim Rodriguez holds the top spot on the classification with 5-seconds to Contador. Tomorrow’s stage begins in Alp and goes to Vallter 2000 – Setcases for an uphill finish on the beyond category climb after 166 km of racing. 

You can read our preview of the fourth stage here and follow our live coverage at 15.15 CET on CyclingQuotes.com/live.