Valverde gets revenge in Volta a Catalunya

After his team was stripped of the race leader’s jersey for a innocent push in the team time trial, Alejandro Valverde stormed to a win atop La Molina in the third stage of Volta a Catalunya.

Valverde would have been race leader, but the jury penalised him one minute in the overall after Tuesday’s stage. BMC’s Tejay van Garderen took the overall race lead now.

Thanks to the 10-second bonus and small splits in the finale, Valverde now ranks 4th overall, 45″ behind race leader Tejay Van Garderen and only four and one, respectively, from second and third-placed Samuel Sanchez (BMC) and Geraint Thomas (Team Sky), which complete the provisional podium.

“It was a very fast start before the break went finally away. The last 50km were also really hard, too”, said Valverde. “Sky made it harder with a strong pace through the entire finale, but the team kept me protected perfectly and Soler was excellent controlling all moves into the last kilometers. Part of this victory is his, too. To be honest, I just had to make sure I sprinted properly. When Daniel Martin attacked, I went on his wheel quickly – I knew it would be difficult for him to beat me, because such uphill finishes really suit me well.

“We must continue to ride focusing on one stage at a time – get through Thursday first and then see how we’re feeling for Lo Port, which will be a really stepp finish. I prefer not to further opine on what happened yesterday, everyone could see the images. Inwardly, we know we won that stage and we did it fairly. For the time being, our Volta can only be qualified as phenomenal.”

Volta a Catalunya 2017 – stage 3 results (Mataró – La Molina):

General classification after stage 3: