One day after he crashed out of GC contention, Tejay van Garderen (BMC) bounced back with an impressive stage win in the queen stage of the Volta a Catalunya. Being no danger to the GC contenders, he attacked on the lower slopes of the final climb and narrowly held off a strong Richie Porte (Sky) who dropped Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) with a late surge. Bart De Clercq (Lotto Soudal) rode an impressive stage to take the overall lead in the WorldTour race.

One year ago Tejay van Garderen exploited the tactical battle between the race favourites perfectly to win the queen stage of the Volta a Catalunya. Today he repeated that performance in the 2015 edition of the race but while last year’s victory set him up for an overall podium place, this year’s triumph came under completely different circumstances.

Yesterday van Garderen crashed on the penultimate descent and lost more than 15 minutes to his main rivals, dropping out of GC contention. However, he escaped the incident with no major injuries and so he was determined to bounce back in the queen stage which finished with at the ski resort of La Molina.

Being no GC danger, van Garderen was not a marked man and so he could allow himself to attack from a bit further out. As they entered the final climb, the two early escapees Riccardo Zoidl (Trek) and Tom Danielson (Cannondale) still had a small advantage as Vasil Kiryienka moved to the front to set the pace for Sky.

By accident, however, the Belarusian got a gap and he bridged across to the two leaders and quickly left them behind. At this point, van Garderen made his first surge but he failed to get clear as Rafal Majka moved to the front to ride hard for Tinkoff-Saxo.

The Pole wung off just as he had brought the early escapees back and this caused the pace to go down. Danielson tried to avoid the chaos by moving to the front before van Garderen sent Peter Stetina to the front.

With less than 5km to go, Dan Martin (Cannondale) launched a big attack and he quickly got a gap. Moments later, van Garderen made his move and he flew past the Il Lombardia champion and quickly bridged the gap to Kiryienka.

As no one took control of the situation, the attacks came thick and fast. Wilco Kelderman (LottoNL-Jumbo) bridged the gap to Martin before Warren Barguil (Giant-Alpecin) and Darwin Atapuma (BMC) took off. While the former fell off, the latter joined Martin and Kelderman.

With 3km to go, Alberto Contador made his big attack and he managed to distance Richie Porte, Rigoberto Uran (Etixx-QuickStep) and Domenico Pozzovivo (Ag2r) who were his nearest chasers. He passed the chasing trio from which Atapuma managed to join him.

Kiryienka was asked to drop back to Porte and while Atapuma lost contact with Contador, the Belarusian did an impressive job to pace his captain and Atapuma back up to the Spaniard just as they passed the flamme rouge and headed onto a flat section followed by a small descent. At this point, van Garderen was 9 seconds ahead and looked like the winner.

However, Porte still had something left and when they hit the small rise to the finish, he accelerated. At first, Contador hung onto his wheel but as they approached the line, the Spaniard cracked. Porte got very close to catching van Garderen but had to settle for second, 3 seconds behind the American. Contador followed in third, 5 seconds later.

Race leader Pierre Rolland (Europcar) had already been distanced on the penultimate climb and lost more than 5 minutes to drop out of the top 10. Instead, it was another of the escapees from stage 1, Bart De Clercq, who shone. The Belgian made it over the penultimate climb with the best and on the final climb he managed to limit his losses enough to take the overall lead.

De Clercq now has a 21-second advantage over Porte as he goes into stage 5 which is a mostly downhill affair. In the finale, however, the riders face a category 2 climb before they take the 14.2km descent to the finish. The Belgian can expect to come under attack on a day that is expected to come down to a reduced sprint or be won by an early breakaway.

The queen stage

After yesterday’s dramatic appetizer, it was time for the queen stage of the Volta a Catalunya which brought the riders over 188.4km from Tuna to a mountaintop finish at the La Molina ski resort. After a flat first part, the riders tackled two category 1 ascents before they hit the bottom of the Alt de la Crueta, the only HC climb of the race. The summit was located with 42.1km to go and then it was a long descent to the bottom of the final 5.6km climb to the finish

There were no non-starters when the riders left Tuna under a beautiful sunny sky. Already after 3km of racing a very strong group of Tom Danielson (Cannondale-Garmin), Jose Herrada (Movistar), Jerome Coppel (IAM), Riccardo Zoidl (Trek) and Loic Chetout (Cofidis) escaped and they worked hard to keep the peloton at bay.

The gap grows

A long fight ensued and it took a long time for the break to be allowed a bigger advantage. At the 15km mark, they were still only 25 seconds ahead but moments later the peloton finally gave up.

While the bunch took a small breather, the gap increased to 5.00 after 28km of racing. Meanwhile, Chetout beat Herrada and Coppel in the first intermediate sprint.

De Gendt crashes out

While the escapees extended their advantage to 6.00, Simon Pellaud (IAM) left the race and the gap even reached 7.00 at the 39km mark. This was the signal for Europcar to take control and the French team kept the gap stable as they went up the first climb. Coppel led Danielson and Herrada over the top while Zoidl beat Herrada and Danielson in the final intermediate sprint.

Thomas De Gendt (Lotto Soudal) crashed twice and was forced to leave the race. Meanwhile, Europcar kept the gap stable at aroun 7 minutes until the peloton hit the second category 1 climb of the day. Here Astana moved to the front to put their rivals under pressure and 3km from the top, they had reduced the gap to 4.40.

Paterski gets dropped

While Herrada led Coppel and Danielson over the top, several riders got dropped from the peloton, including Maciej Paterski (CCC) who had started the stage in second place overall. At the summit, the gap was only 3.30 and as the fast pace was maintained on the descent, it was reduced to 2.52 at the 91km mark.

Pablo Lastras (Movistar) crashed out of the race on the descent and was brought to the hospital in an ambulance. That didn’t cause the peloton to slow down though and as they passed through the feed zone with 77km to go, the escapees were only 2.00 ahead. Paterski’s group fought hard to rejoin the peloton and was now only 20 seconds behind.

The break splits up

Just before the riders hit the big Alt de la Creueta, Chetout was dropped from the breakaway which was only 1.14 ahead with 71km to go. As they started to climb, Coppel also had to surrender, leaving just Herrada, Danielson and Zoidl to press on.

Tinkoff-Saxo and Sky went to the front to apply the pressure on the steep slopes but the escapees did well to maintain a gap of around 1.30. However, the fast pace had its effect and 9km from the summit, the main group was down to just 35 riders.

Rolland loses ground

Moments later, race leader Pierre Rolland (Europcar) lost contact with the peloton which continued to press on. 4km from the summit, only 20 riders were still with the best riders on the hardest climb of the race and Rolland had already lost 45 seconds.

Sky continued to set a brutal pace despite Chris Froome having been dropped. The former Tour de France winner was with Rolland who was 1 minute behind as they crested the summit.

Herrada is dropped

At the top, Herrada had been dropped from the break which had extended their advantage to 1.40. As they started the descent, however, Nicolas Roche continued to ride hard for Sky and he started to reduce the gap.

The peloton caught Herrada with 24km to go at a point when they were 1.10 behind and Roche brought it down to 50 seconds before the situation stabilized. As they got onto flatter roads, the peloton again had the upper hand and with 9km to go, the gap was only 30 seconds.

At this point, Rolland had lost 1.30 and it was clear that he wouldn’t get back. Meanwhile, the fight for position had started but it was still Roche setting the pace for Sky. He led the group onto the climb and moments later Kiryienka started the exciting finale.