Stage 2 of Volta a Catalunya didn’t allow for the favorites to take back the time lost to the dangerous riders of yesterday’s breakaway. However, Tinkoff-Saxo’s team captain Alberto Contador is determined to try and bridge the gap in the GC.
 
The bad weather in Volta a Catalunya proved too much for the TV signal, but the riders managed to pull through on stage 2, which ended in a bunch sprint with Alejandro Valverde taking the win. Alberto Contador, still suffering from the effects of a cold caught at Tirreno-Adriatico, noted that the weather didn’t make recuperating easier.
 
“The bad weather that we had today wasn’t ideal to recover from my cold. Anyway, cycling is like this and we must just acclimatize to the conditions. It was a hard and cold stage and I would like to thank my teammates, who supported me a lot during the stage and kept me well placed”, says Alberto Contador immediately after the stage.

The 192km stage 2 from Mataró to Olot was ultimately decided in a bunch sprint, where Movistar emerged victorious in a double win with Valverde and Rojas taking first and second spot on the stage. Tinkoff-Saxo team leader Alberto Contador finished 21st together with the GC favorites in the main bunch.
 
However, the GC favorites were unable to take back the time gained by Maciej Paterski, Pierre Rolland and Bart De Clercq on stage 1 and the trio continues to have a lead of around 2:40 before the deciding stages. But Alberto Contador notes that there’s nothing else to do than to try and bridge the gap in the mountains.
 
“With the advantage that they have in the GC it will probably be very difficult and hard to fight for the overall win from behind. In any case, Catalunya is my last race before the Giro so I want to test myself before leaving the race. We will try to use any possibility to take time in the GC, maybe tomorrow or maybe to La Molina on stage 4. It is not the best climb but for sure we will try something”, adds Alberto Contador, who was looking for possibilities on the last climb of today’s stage:
 
“In the last kilometers on the stage today we had a small climb of about 1,5 kilometer. I went in the front to look for a possibility but today wasn’t the terrain for doing anything in the final”.
 
After the stage, Tinkoff-Saxo’s leading sports director at the race, Steven de Jongh added that the day will be remembered for its constant showers.
 
“Today was wet, wet and wet. It was a fairly uneventful day, since the stage profile wasn’t that hard. A 4-man breakaway formed and took all the bonus seconds along the way until they were caught with around 20k to go after we had pulled together with Sky and Movistar. The guys did their job and protected Alberto and kept him well positioned”, finishes Steven de Jongh, who expects to see more action during the next days of increasingly mountainous racing.