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Movistar rolls to victory in tough team time trial at Volta a Catalunya

UPDATE: Valverde installed as race leader after teammate JJ Rojas penalized for push

March 21, 2017
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Movistar beat the traditional team time trial wizards at the Volta a Catalunya on Tuesday, putting JJ Rojas in the white and green leader’s jersey and giving Alejandro Valverde a slight advantage before heading into the mountains. UPDATE: All sorts of uproar and confusion after the race. Rojas and teammates Andrey Amador and Nelson Oliveira were all given time penalties for pushing, Rojas 3:00 for pushing, Amadro 2:00 Oliveira 1:00 for being pushed, moving Valverde into the lead.


It was going to be a difficult stage, with a rolling, 41.3-km course to negotiate. The longest Volta a Catalunya team time trial in five decades was going to bury a lot of GC riders early.


First up was the Brazilian team seemingly known by two names–Soul Brasil and Funvic Brasil–headed out first with Caja Rural starting three minutes later.

Brasil’s top time of 54:14 lasted long enough for squad members to towel off. Trek-Segafredo had the fast mark until the well-drilled BMC team stopped the clock at 48:57, a fine result for GC contenders Rohan Dennis, runner-up in Tirreno-Adriatico, and Tejay Van Garderen.

BMC is one of the elite team chrono outfits.
BMC is one of the elite team chrono outfits.

With Mikel Landa struggling to stay attached, Sky came in 44-seconds in arrears, slotting Alberto Contador’s Trek-Segafredo into provisional third. Svein Tuft’s Orica-Scott posted the fourth fastest time.

Movistar, third from last to start, set the fastest intermediate time with 26:17. The Spanish outfit caught and passed its three-minute team, Roompot, and the Dutch Pro Continental squad was warned not to try to move into Movistar’s slipstream.


Movistar would edge out BMC by a mere two seconds.

Here’s how the GC men sit with five stages to go:
Alejandro Valverde 5:17:16
Rohan Dennis +0:02
Tejay Van Garderen s.t.
Chris Froome +0:46
Geraint Thomas s.t.
Alberto Contador +1:15
Adam Yates +1:24
Steven Kruijswijk +1:48
Jakob Fuglsang +2:05
Dan Martin +2:13
Romain Bardet +2:15
Ilnur Zakarin +2:47

Tuft lost contact with his team, coming in +5:03, while Michael Woods’ Cannondale squad was 18th, +3:30.

Wednesday’s stage ends with three consecutive Cat. 1 climbs. The finish isn’t quite summit, more like plateau, about 9-km after the summit of La Molina.


2017 Volta a Catalunya Stage 2
1) Movistar 48:55
2) BMC +0:02
3) Sky +0:46

2017 Volta a Catalunya GC
1) Alejandro Valverde (Spain/Movistar) s.t.
2) Rubén Fernandez (Spain/Movistar) s.t.
3) Imanol Erviti (Spain/Movistar) s.t.
99) Michael Woods (Canada/Cannondale-Drapac) +3:30