Yesterday’s queen stage of the Volta a Catalunya, 21.7 km from Llanars to the HC summit finish at Port Ainé, witnessed a breakaway attempt of no less than 23 riders. Of the front group only Daniel Martin (Garmin-Sharp) would stay ahead and the Irishman could win the stage and take the overall leader’s jersey.

Towards the end of the stage Jürgen Van den Broeck of Lotto-Belisol went on the attack looking to regain time lost on the first stage and trying to bridge the gap to Martin, but the gap was too big. Joaquím Rodriquez (Katusha) and Nairo Quintana (Movistar) came skyrocketing from behind and Van den Broeck came in fourth on the day.

“The stage lent itself to attacking,” explained Van den Broeck afterwards. “I decided to join Gesink (Blanco) because I thought he would be the ideal companion. After Valverde had quit after his crash I was surprised that Sky and Katusha gave Martin such a big advantage. I attacked because I wanted to try to win the stage and wanted to improve my position in the GC. The time I lost on the first day I only have myself to blame for it, and I wanted to make up for that. That’s why I attacked today, but the stage was less tough than I thought. The next stages are less hard, but in these stages there can still be modifications to the GC. I am definitely happy about today.”

Van den Broeck is currently 10th  on overall GC, 1’ 15” after Quintana.