As Juan Ayuso celebrated a narrow but well-deserved victory at the Volta a Catalunya’s first summit finish at La Molina, no less than two of his key rivals have been left reflecting on a excessive mountain stage which created extra questions than it did actual solutions.
‘That was una locura [crazy],” former Tour de France winner Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) stated afterwards, succinctly declaring that “we bought to the end and there was an enormous group in a dash in a stage with 5,000 metres of climbing”.
“Folks have been going actually quick, however we bought by effective even when my emotions weren’t overly nice at the moment.”
La Molina is one thing of a particular end for Bernal, because it was the place he turned in certainly one of his high early performances as a racer: Again in 2018, in certainly one of his first races at WorldTour stage together with his present workforce – on the time nonetheless sponsored by Sky, a 21-year-old Bernal completed a massively spectacular second behind fellow-Colombian Miguel Angel López.
This time round, Bernal is also happy, given he’s on the comeback path from a broken collarbone earlier this season and La Molina was his first main mountain stage since his damage and return to racing.
“It was a really robust stage, however I am pleased I might save the day, and get by,” Bernal, seventh on the stage and operating tenth total, stated afterwards. “Now I simply must relaxation and do the following phases in addition to potential.”
Pipped on the line by Juan Ayuso, Primož Roglič (Purple Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) stated initially that the dash had been so shut he did not know whether or not he had been forward or not. However the Slovenian, in any case, lived as much as his standing of pre-race favorite, and in simply his second race of 2025, is clearly firing on many, if not all, cylinders.
“I do not know precisely if I used to be first or second, however it’s OK,” Roglic instructed the TV Slovenija channel in a short assertion earlier than heading again to the workforce bus.
“I really feel OK, the opposite guys are additionally sturdy. As I all the time say, there have been numerous sturdy cyclists, so it wasn’t in any respect simple. However there was nonetheless a bunch and a dash on the finish.”
Aside from the ferocious final sprint for the road by Roglič, Ayuso, et al, it is honest to say that the La Molina stage didn’t actually present any clear conclusions concerning La Volta’s GC battle. The earlier ascent of La Creueta, 20 kilometres lengthy, didn’t see any strikes go clear, after which on La Molina, barring one transient dig by former winner Ben O’Connor (Jayco-AlUla) there was no actual GC motion till the final kilometre.
It now stays to be seen if Thursday’s excessive mountain stage to Montserrat, for all its comparative ease, will produce a really completely different form of consequence.
