Intermediate sprints hardly ever trigger greater than the briefest ripples of curiosity in stage races. But within the Volta a Catalunya on Friday, GC contender Juan Ayuso snatched a 3rd place at one such dash and the native TV commentators have been all however leaping out of their seats on the Spanish rider’s achievement.
The cause was clear: Ayuso’s one second time bonus acquire from the dash was sufficient to place the UAE Team Emirates-XRG rider again into the general lead forward of arch-rival Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe). Ayuso had beforehand been tied on time with Roglič, however the Slovenian’s worse stage placings had pushed him all the way down to second on GC.
Now the boot was on the opposite foot, due to Ayuso’s one-second time acquire on the dash within the city of L’Aldea, and after each Ayuso and Roglič had made it into the lead echelon that shaped late on the windblasted stage 5.
“The good situation would have been if Roglič was behind [in a second echelon], however with such a superb and powerful rider like him, that is at all times exhausting,” Ayuso confirmed later.
“In any case, I’m blissful to be on the entrance, I arrived safely and I obtained the bonus second. It’s just one second however we do not know if it may be essential or not, the deciding second. So it is higher to have it than not.”
Regaining command of the GC lead by such a trivial quantity might sound irrelevant, Ayuso admitted. But Catalunya’s total battle has been determined by minimal time margins up to now, so it was higher to have that benefit.
“In every other race, one second can be almost pointless or one thing to not lose an excessive amount of power on,” Ayuso agreed. “But on this race we’ve seen many occasions that it may be determined by one second and even positions just like the GC was determined, proper up till this morning.
“So we’ve to battle for each second, and now if we arrive collectively, I’ve that in my favour. Every second counts.”
Ayuso had not needed to speak to the media after shedding narrowly to Roglič on stage 4’s ascent to Montserrat. Then 24 hours later, in a way more communicative temper with the chief’s jersey on his again, he defined that he felt he had did not reside as much as the group on stage 4 after they’d labored so exhausting on the climb to try to blow the race aside, so he had been too upset to speak.
“The group labored rather well, they deserved the win and while you lose by such a detailed margin, it at all times hurts a bit,” Ayuso mentioned. “It’s true, although, that the opposite day I received by even much less of a margin, so generally you’ve gotten it, some days you do not.”
Just 24 hours after the summit end at Montserrat, stage 5 was a really completely different sort of situation, Ayuso agreed, with an echelon and small bunch dash end deciding the day’s final result. But if echelons can generally take a peloton unexpectedly, on Friday with gale-force winds battering the race from the phrase go, they have been something however sudden.
The proof was that solely a handful of prime GC riders, amongst them Lennert van Eetvelt (Lotto) and Juanpe López (Lidl-Trek) have been caught out when the echelon lastly shaped, shedding round 40 seconds.
“The stage was very nervous, it was very tense from the beginning with the winds, we knew that may be an echelon. The solely factor we didn’t know was the place, whether or not it could be 100 kilometres from the end or near the tip prefer it lastly proved to be.”
On Saturday the Volta heads again into the mountains, the place Ayuso and the remainder of the sector expect a serious battle on GC.
“It’s the hardest climbs of the race, and that is extra the place it will probably break open and trigger a variety. So I wish to get well and be prepared for that,” Ayuso mentioned. “Probably the GC will not be determined by one second. But whether it is – then now I’ve it.”
