Yet more WorldTour success for HTC-Highroad
Gatis Smukulis (HTC-Highroad) won the opening stage of the Vuelta a Catalunya, starting and finishing in the Costa Brava resort town of Lloret de Mar. The Latvian was the sole survivor of a three-man group that escaped after just 22km of the 167km stage and managed to hold off the peloton at the finish. Alessandro Petacchi (Lampre-ISD) led the peloton home 28 seconds later to take second place ahead of José Joaquin Rojas (Movistar).
“I’m really surprised that I could win today,” Smukulis said, “I’m in good shape for the Classics, but these sorts of long breaks don’t normally work out.”
“There were a lot of attacks, it was a fast start, and then we got away on a bit of a downhill,” he explained. “I worked hard to open up the gap in the first half of the stage and then concentrated on keeping my strength for the final part of the day, which I knew would be tough.”
“The last 20 kilometres were flat or downhill and that made a real difference,” he added, “otherwise for sure they would have caught us.”
After an aggressive start to the stage, Smukulis, with Julian Sanchez (Caja Rural) and Ben Gastauer (AG2R La Mondiale) made the race’s first successful escape after 22km and the peloton refused to react. The trio quickly worked to maximise its advantage, and by the top of the 1st category Alto di Sant Hilari after 52km the gap was up to 8 minutes.
After 85km the breakaway’s lead reached its maximum of 11’30”; Katusha, Saxo Bank-SunGard and Liquigas-Cannondale decided that enough was enough at this point and sent men forward to bring the gap down.
With the gap coming down consistently Sanchez led the trio over the top of the second climb of the day, the 1st category Alto de San Grau, but was soon left behind by the other two. With 20km to go Smukulis and Gastauer led the Katusha and Lampre-ISD led peloton by just 2’10” and their catch seemed inevitable.
As they closed in on the finish, with the peloton breathing down their necks, Smukulis managed to escape Gastauer and the Luxembourg rider was swept up by the main field. Smukulis managed to hold on though, finishing 28 seconds ahead of the charging Petacchi.