Volta a Catalunya stage 1: Andreas Kron opens 100th edition of Spanish race with four-up sprint win

Andreas Lorentz Kron (Lotto-Soudal) won stage 1 of the 2021 Volta a Catalunya in a four-way sprint, coming from the back of the group.

Luis León Sánchez (Astana-Premier Tech) wearing the Spanish national champion’s jersey was denied the win in his home country when Kron held on to take the sprint win.

Kron, taking his first WorldTour victory was also awarded the best young rider jersey and the points classification jersey for the day’s results.

“It’s my first WorldTour stage race and my first WorldTour stage win, so I am very happy. It’s crazy. It’s fantastic, I cannot say anything except it’s fantastic. We rode fantastic as a team today,” said the 22-year-old stage winner.

Rémy Rochas (Cofidis) pipped Lennard Kämna (Bora-Hansgrohe) for the final podium position with a charging peloton less than 16 seconds behind them.

What a win! 😱#VoltaCatalunya100 pic.twitter.com/Y42RjjE30S

— Lotto Dstny (@lotto_dstny) March 22, 2021

How it happened

Chris Froome (Israel Start-Up Nation) struggled on the only classified climb of the day at 50km of racing to go.

A break of four which had escaped earlier in the day was scooped up on this climb as Movistar Team, with former world champion Alejandro Valverde applied pressure on the ascent.

Things appeared to settle into a rhythm again after the descent, and it was not for another 20km that teams started firing on all cylinders again when a break attempt was made at 26km to go.

On a counter to this move, a four-man break of Kron, Sánchez, Kämna, and Rémy Rochas (Cofidis) escaped at 23km remaining on the stage and the peloton seemed disinterested in immediately pursuing the quartet.

Just under the 15km to go mark, the main bunch started the pursuit in earnest, but with a 26-second gap at 12km to go the four motivated men looked to have enough advantage.

Esteban Chaves (Team BikeExchange) lead the chasing peloton, with help from Richard Carapaz and Rohan Dennis (Ineos Grenadiers).

In the remaining 2km, Kämna attempted to get away but was quickly marked, and the four continued cat-and-mouse games until the final 400m.

Forcing Rochas to open up, Sanchez tried to come around and hold on for the win. But Kron waited for the right time and launched around the group, and past Sánchez, while Kämna faded back of Rochas.

Kron added, “We had [a teammate] in the break, and also the mountain jersey for him. Then I came into the break, and I won the sprint. It’s incredible, fantastic. It’s special, it’s something special – yeah – it’s just fantastic.”

What’s to come

Stage 2 is an 18.5km individual time trial in Banyoles, one of the competition sites for the 1992 Olympic Games.

All eyes will be on two-time world time trial champion Rohan Denis to make his mark at the top of the results after riders cover an undulating course.