Radstar Primoz Roglic missed a day victory at the royal stage of the top-class catalonia tour. The Slovenian captain of the German racing team Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe had to give up only the Spanish top talent Juan Ayuso (UAE Emirates-XRG) on Wednesday in the narrow final. Third finished Ayuso’s compatriot Mikel Landa with two seconds behind.
After 218.6 extremely demanding kilometers of Viladécans on the outskirts of Barcelona to the still snow -covered ski area La Molina, the decision in the sprint of a larger top group was surprising due to the selective course. Roglic and Ayuso brought a few meters between themselves and the other top drivers, the decision was then made in the photo finish.
Ayuso takes over the overall lead, Kämna loses time
Ayuso, team -mate of top star Tadej Pogacar, who is not at the start in Catalonia, also clawed the overall lead through the victory. The 22-year-old is just six seconds ahead of Roglic and eleven seconds ahead of Landa. Emanuel Buchmann (Cofidis) performed well and was 17 seconds behind 25., Lennard Kämna lost significantly more time on his comeback tour. No German driver occupies a place in the top 20 of the overall ranking.
The former tour scheme winner Kämna had suffered life-threatening injuries last year in a training accident. With his new team Lidl-Trek, he should slowly find old performance again. Like Kämna, Buchmann had also left the Red Bull team, the fourth fourth of 2019 dares to start a new beginning at Cofidis.
The next difficult mountain stage follows
The 104th Volta Ciclista a Catalunya leads from March 24th to 30th over a total of seven stages and 1188 kilometers. The fourth stage on Thursday over 188.7 km from Sant Vicenç de Castellet to Montserrat will be difficult again.