Lotto Belisol got their Volta a Catalunya off to a great start. Tosh van der Sande sprinted to a fine fifth while the team's 20-year-old neo-pro Boris Vallee animated the stage in the day's breakaway.

Luka Mezgec of Giant Shimano won the opening stage of the Volta a Catalunya today. After 165 kilometres he sprinted to the victory in Calella.

But many eyes were on the 20-year-old Boris Vallée today. The youngest rider in the Lotto Belisol team animated the first stage by taking off in an early breakaway. Together with the Frenchman Lemarchand he worked up an eight minutes lead ahead of the peloton and was only caught by the bunch on the last climb. Vallée got a nice prize after his adventure. He won all intermediate sprints and takes the first place in the points classification.

"We kept up a good tempo,” Vallée said. “But with two riders it isn't easy to survive and stay ahead of a chasing peloton. It's a pity we weren't with some more riders otherwise we might have battled for the win. Before the start we had discussed with the team that there was a chance that big groups would take off in the beginning of the stage, so we had to be very attentive.

"I'm glad I could test my legs in a breakaway. I'm honoured to wear the leader's jersey of the classification of intermediate sprints tomorrow. That's a big windfall and especially a nice bonus for my aggressive ride. In the next days I will mainly perform a helping role to fully assist Jurgen Van den Broeck and Bart De Clercq."

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