As Juan Ayuso celebrated a slender however well-deserved victory on the Volta a Catalunya’s first summit end at La Molina, a minimum of two of his key rivals had 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) mentioned afterwards, succinctly declaring that “we obtained to the end and there was an enormous group in a dash in a stage with 5,000 metres of climbing”.
“People had been going actually quick, however we obtained via nice even when my emotions weren’t overly nice right now.”
La Molina is one thing of a particular end for Bernal, because it was the place he turned in one in every of his prime early performances as a racer: Back in 2018, in one in every of his first races at WorldTour stage along with his present group – 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 damaged collarbone earlier this season and La Molina was his first main mountain stage since his damage and return to racing.
“It was a really powerful stage, however I’m comfortable I may save the day, and get via,” Bernal, seventh on the stage and working tenth total, mentioned afterwards. “Now I simply must relaxation and do the subsequent phases in addition to doable.”
Pipped on the line by Juan Ayuso, Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) mentioned initially that the dash had been so shut he did not know whether or not he had been forward or not. But 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 advised the TV Slovenija channel in a short assertion earlier than heading again to the group bus.
“I really feel OK, the opposite guys are additionally robust. As I all the time say, there have been a variety of robust cyclists, so it wasn’t in any respect simple. But there was nonetheless a bunch and a dash on the finish.”
With the exception of the ferocious final sprint for the road by Roglič, Ayuso, et al, it is truthful to say that the La Molina stage didn’t actually present any clear conclusions relating to 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 totally different type of end result.
