Godon edges out Evenepoel in tight Volta a Catalunya opener

Dorian Godon (Ineos) won stage 1 of the Volta a Catalunya after he pipped Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) in a sprint finish in Sant Feliu de Guíxols.

The gently climbing finishing straight produced a breathless finale, with Tom Pidock (Pinarello-Q36.5) hitting out from distance before Evenepoel careered off his wheel with 250m to go.

Evenepoel, however, had Godon parked on his wheel and the French champion came past him with 100m to go. That didn’t prevent Evenepoel from kicking again and the Belgian would push Godon all the way before ultimately falling a tyre length short as they both dived for the line.

Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike) finished safely in the peloton after riding prominently at the head of the field on the technical run-in to the line.

The day’s break forged clear on the early climb of the Alt de Romanyà, and Baptiste Veistroffer (Lotto Intermarché), Hugo Aznar (Kern Pharma), Unai Aznar (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Josh Burnett (Burgos-Burgpellet BH) and Tyler Stites (Modern Adventure) would quickly build a lead of four minutes over the peloton.

That buffer would start to contract on the long category 1 ascent of the Alt de Sant Hilari, and the pace ramped up still further in the peloton on the long, sweeping descent that followed, with Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe prominent.

The gap was down to a minute with 30km to go, and the break began to fragment on the undulating run back towards the finish in Sant Feliu de Guíxols. Burnett was the last man standing but brisk pace-making from UAE Team Emirates-XRG would ensure he would be reeled in with 11km remaining.

UAE continued their forcing on the series of short, unclassified climbs that followed, and those efforts would see riders distanced off the back of the peloton as the intensity of the pace took its toll, with Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) surprisingly among them.

Bahrain Victorious took it up with 6km to go, then Jonas Vingegaard (Visma) hit the front in the last 4km, figuring that the safest seat in the house was at the very front of the peloton on a finale as sinuous as this.