Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) won the highly anticipated first battle between the titans in today's third stage of the Volta a Catalunya when he soloed away from his rivals with one of his trademark accelerations inside the final kilometres. Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) tried to respond but  had to settle for second while Chris Froome (Sky) made repeated attacks but faded near the end and could only manage 5th.

 

Due the fabulous start list that included the top 4 of last year's Tour de France, the expectations for this year's Volta a Catalunya were immense and today the race really came alive when the best climbers battled it out on the first mountain stage of the race. Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) got one up on his rivals when he marked his return to competition following a long training camp by taking an emphatic solo win at the La Molina ski resort.

 

The stage ended at the top of a short 5.3km climb that only had an average gradient of 6% and this made it one for the explosive riders more than the pure climbers. This suited Rodriguez down to the ground and he made use of his puncheur skills to take the win.

 

Rodriguez used his excellent teammates Giampaolo Caruso and Daniel Moreno to close down dangerous move from Jakob Fuglsang (Astana) inside the final 2km of the stage and when they passed the flamme rouge, it was Moreno who put everybody under pressure by setting a fierce pace. However, the first of the favourites to show his cards was not Rodriguez but Tour de France winner Chris Froome who made his first move with 800m to go.

 

Rodriguez was quick to respond while Alberto Contador had to go the long way around the fading Moreno before bridging across. The Spaniard had Nairo Quintana (Movistar) on his wheel and suddenly the top 4 from the Tour were together at the front of the race.

 

Froome stopped his acceleration which allowed Wilco Kelderman (Belkin) and Domenico Pozzovivo (Ag2r= to draw a few riders back to the front of the race. However, they barely made the junction before Froome made his next acceleration.

 

The Tour champion was unable to shake his rivals and when he sat down, Rodriguez made his move, Contador tried to follow but had to let the Katusha leader go. However, he gapped both Froome and Quintana and rode hard to limit his losses to Rodriguez and gain as much time as possible on his chasers.

 

Rodriguez soloed across the line to take a beautiful win while Contador followed 5 minutes later. Quintana was 3rd at 9 seconds while Froome was passed by Tejay van Garderen (BMC) and could only manage 5th.

 

With the win, Rodriguez is now also the new overall leader of the race as the new top 10 is identical to the top 10 of the stage. He takes a 5-second lead into tomorrow's big queen stage.

 

The 166.4km stage starts with a tough category 1 climb and includes another two ascents in that category and a category 2 mountain before the finish. It comes in Vallter 2000 at the top of an HC climb that is 12km long and has an average gradient of 7.8%. Rodriguez faces a hard test on a stage that is likely to determine the final overall classification.

 

A big mountain stage

After two days for the sprinters, the Volta a Catalunya continued with its first mountain stage which brought the riders over 162.9km from Banyoles to a summit finish at La Molina. Along the way, the riders went up the category 1 Alt de Boubet and category HC Alt de la Creueta which preceded the final category 1 ascent to the line. At just 5.3km and with an average gradient of 6%, the final difficulty was a rather easy one and so the stage was not expected to produce massive time differences.

 

Due to forecasted bad weather, the stage had been in doubt but yesterday evening, the organizers confirmed that the stage would go on as planned. Hence, the riders took off in 10-degree temperatures from Banyoles with no overnight withdrawals.

 

The break is formed

The stage was expected to be kept firmly under control by the teams of the favourites and so most riders were in no mood to attack. It didn't take long for the early break to get establish and after 4km of racing, six riders were already up the road.

 

Andrey Zeits (Astana), Jack Bobridge (Belkin), Michel Koch (Cannondale), Kevin Reza (Europcar), Branislau Samoliau (CCC), and Rudy Molard (Cofidis) took off and after 6km of racing, they were already 30 seconds ahead. At the 15km mark, they had opened the gap to three minutes and the peloton was absolutely unconcerned by their escape.

 

A big gap

With three big climbs coming up, the favourites were content that they had plenty of time to reel in the break. By the time they reached the bottom of the Alt de Coubet after 30km of racing, the six escapees were a massive 10 minutes ahead.

 

Team Tinkoff-Saxo had big plans for the stage with Alberto Contador and so the team started to pace the peloton as soon as they reached the bottom of the climb. At the top, they had brought the advantage down to 9 minutes.

 

Bobridge takes KOM points

Bobridge took maximum points at the climb ahead of Molard and Smukulis. Since then the gap has continued to come gradually down and was down to 7.25 by the time they reached the bottom of the day's major climb.

 

On the slopes, the four major teams combined forces to control the gap, with Nathan Earle (Sky), Maxim Belkov (Katusha), Pavel Poljanski (Tinkoff-Saxo), and Javier Moreno (Movistar) swapping turns on the front. The quartet kept the gap stable at around 6.30 for most of the way up the long climb.

 

A fierce headwind

The riders were battling a fierce headwind which meant that the pace was rather slow but Samoilau still found the energy to make a small attack halfway up the climb. Bobridge and Zeits were quick to respond while Molard and Reza also made the junction. However, Koch fell off the pace.

 

The front group again started to work together but impressively Koch managed to rejoin them when just 2km remained to the top. In the peloton, Sky had stopped chasing but instead Tinkoff-Saxo had added Sergio Paulinho to the team of chasers.

 

Tinkoff-Saxo and Katusha lead the peloton

Moreno also stopped working but instead Katusha replaced Belkov with Pavel Brutt and Angel Vicioso and the two Tinkoff-Saxo and two Katusha riders managed to bring the gap down to 3.46 by the time they crested the summit. At the top, Bobridge beat Zeits and Samoilau to take over the mountains jersey.

 

Paulinho, Vicioso and Brutt led the peloton all the way down the descent and for most of the flat part in between the final two climbs while they kept the gap stable at just above the three-minute mark. Meanwhile, Koch took the first intermediate sprint uncontested and beat Samoilau in the second one.

 

The break splits up

With 23km to go, things started to get serious in the peloton as all the big teams started to position them near the front. The work was still left to Vicioso, Brutt, Paulinho, and Moreno who had rejoined the chasers for Movistar.

 

While Eduard Vorganov now also assisted in the chase for Katusha who carried the brunt of the workload, the gap started to come down quickly. With 13km to go, it was down to less than a minute and this prompted Samoilau to make an attack.

 

Reza is the strongest

Reza easily joined him while Molard also made the junction. Koch was the first to fall off and Bobridge was the next to get swallowed up by the peloton that was now led by Jussi Veikkanen (FDJ) and - for a long time- Thomas de Gendt (OPQS).

 

Zeits was close to rejoining the leaders when Molard was unable to keep Samoilau's wheel. Reza easily accelerated past him and went straight to the front. Samoilau couldn't keep up with him and while all his former companions were caught, he battled on.

 

Siutsou attacks for Sky

Kanstantsin Siutsou (Sky) launched an attack but Jonathan Castroviejo was quick to shut it down as Movistar had now lined up a train on the front. The next to take over was Ruben Plaza who set a fierce pace that made the peloton crumble.

 

At the 5km to go banner, it was over for Reza as Plaza continued hi brutal pace. When he swung off inside the final three kilometres, he left it to his teammate Igor Anton who continued Movistar's acceleration.

 

Betancur in difficulty

While Carlos Betancur (Ag2r) was suffering at the back, Pierre Rolland (Europcar) was the first to make an attack. He was joined by Andrew Talansky (Garmin) and Fuglsang but the trio was quickly brought back by Caruso who had taken over in the peloton for Katusha.

 

Fuglsang made a counterattack and quickly opened up a big gap. Caruso managed to stabilize it until Moreno took over inside the final two kilometres. The Spaniard's hard tempo quickly brought the Dane back and a few moments later, Froome made the attack that started the exciting finale.