photo credits @ Volta
The 104th edition of the Volta Ciclista a Catalunya got underway on Monday 24 March with a 178.3-kilometer stage starting and finishing from Sant Feliu de Guíxols, which crowned the first leader of the race for the fourth consecutive year. An opening stage that pushed the riders to the limit in the rain and featured a thrilling finish on the explosive ramp of the Carretera de Girona in the Empordà town of Sant Feliu de Guíxols.
The race started with a leg-breaking route along the Costa Brava and the Gavarres massif, which was made even tougher by the presence of rain from the second half of the route onwards. After the first attacks of the day, a group of four breakaway riders consolidated from the first stages of the stage, formed by Jan Castellón (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) from Lleida, who won the prize for the most combative cyclist, another debutant, José Luis Faura (Burgos Burpellet BH), Danny van der Tuuk and Nicolás Alustiza (Euskaltel-Euskadi).
Together they have overcome the two scoring passes of the day, the Coll de Begur and the Alto de Santa Pellaia, but they have never had too wide an advantage for the work of teams like Alpecin-Deceuninck and Team Picnic-PostNL, in the first instance, who wanted to fight for the stage win. In the end, they were neutralized by the strong pace of the Ineos Grenadiers team at the first stage finish in Sant Feliu de Guíxols, just over 60 kilometers from the end of the stage.
The strong pace under the rain of favorite teams like UAE Team Emirates and Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe had significantly reduced the group of favorites in the last kilometers and favored a finish by explosive riders in Sant Feliu de Guíxols where trying to replicate the script of the previous year, Tibor del Grosso (Alpecin-Deceuninck) wanted to surprise in the last kilometer to take the solo victory, but he was overtaken at the finish line by the British Matthew Brennan (Team Visma-Lease a Bike), who had on his wheel a winner of three stages of the Volta – Kaden Groves.
At just 19 years old, Brennan came very close to becoming the youngest stage winner in the history of the Volta a Catalunya, a record held by Volta legend Miquel Poble, a milestone that placed him as the first leader of the Volta a Catalunya 2025, which continues this Tuesday with a 177.3-kilometer stage between Banyoles and Figueres.
