As Juan Ayuso celebrated a slim however well-merited victory on the Volta a Catalunya’s first summit end at L. a. Molina, a minimum of two of his key competitors had been left reflecting on a top mountain degree which created extra questions than it did actual solutions.
‘That used to be una locura [crazy],” former Tour de France winner Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) said afterwards, succinctly pointing out that “we were given to the end and there used to be an enormous team in a dash in a degree with 5,000 metres of mountaineering”.
“Other folks had been going in point of fact rapid, however we were given via advantageous although my emotions were not overly nice lately.”
La Molina is something of a special finish for Bernal, as it was where he turned in one of his top early performances as a racer: Back in 2018, in one of his first races at WorldTour level with his current team – at the time still sponsored by Sky, a 21-year-old Bernal finished a hugely impressive second behind fellow-Colombian Miguel Angel López.
This time around, Bernal could also be satisfied, given he is on the comeback trail from a broken collarbone earlier this season and La Molina was his first major mountain stage since his injury and return to racing.
“It used to be an excessively tricky degree, however I am satisfied I may just save the day, and get via,” Bernal, seventh on the stage and running tenth overall, said afterwards. “Now I simply wish to relaxation and do the following levels in addition to conceivable.”
Pipped at the line by Juan Ayuso, Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) said initially that the sprint had been so close he didn’t know whether he had been ahead or not. But the Slovenian, in any case, lived up to his status of pre-race favourite, and in just his second race of 2025, is clearly firing on many, if not all, cylinders.
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“I do not know precisely if I used to be first or 2nd, however it’s OK,” Roglic told the TV Slovenija channel in a brief statement before heading back to the team bus.
“I believe OK, the opposite guys also are sturdy. As I all the time say, there have been numerous sturdy cyclists, so it wasn’t in any respect simple. However there used to be nonetheless a bunch and a dash on the finish.”
With the exception of the ferocious last dash for the line by Roglič, Ayuso, et al, it’s fair to say that the La Molina stage did not really provide any clear conclusions regarding La Volta’s GC battle. The previous ascent of La Creueta, 20 kilometres long, failed to see any moves go clear, and then on La Molina, barring one brief dig by former winner Ben O’Connor (Jayco-AlUla) there was no real GC action until the very last kilometre.
It now is still noticed if Thursday’s top mountain degree to Montserrat, for all its comparative ease, will produce an excessively other more or less end result.
