FDJ's Davide Cimolai wins opening stage in Volta a Catalunya
Mar 21 2017 12:04 am CET
SUBSCRIBE TO RSS FEEDSItalian Davide Cimolai of FDJ is the first leader of the Volta a Catalunya after winning the opening stage on Monday.
The first of seven stages started and finished in the beach town of Calella with a total length of 178.9 kilometers. The route included a number of climbs but the finale was flat enough to allow for a mass sprint.
Antonio Nibali (Bahrain-Merida), Brendan Canty and Pierre Rolland (Cannondale-Drapac), Axel Domont (AG2R La Mondiale), Murilo Affonso and Magno Nazaret (Soul Brazil) and Jetse Bol (Manzana Postobon) escaped from the peloton to form a lead group of seven.
The leaders were never given much more than a minute however, inspiring Bol and Domont to attack from the breakaway in an attempt to gain more terrain on the peloton.
Their effort came to nothing however as the two were reeled in by the pack with 25 kilometers to go.
No moves were made on the 3rd-category Alt de Collsacreu at 18 kilometers from the finish, and it took until five kilometers from the line for AG2R's Cyril Gautier to launch an unexpected attack. The Frenchman was caught soon after however and a similar attempt by Team Sky's Peter Kennaugh met the exact same destiny.
In the final sprint, Nacer Bouhanni was perfectly launched by his Cofidis teammates but was beaten on the line by FDJ's Davide Cimolai. As such, the Italian also takes the lead in the overall classification.
Behind Bouhanni, third place went to Italian Kristian Sbaragli of Team Dimension Data. Andre Greipel found himself in a bad position in the sprint and played no role for the top spots.
The Volta a Catalunya continues on Tuesday with a 41.3km Team Time Trial in Banyoles.
