Today's stage from La Seu d'Urgell to Torredembarra is the longest of the Volta at 201.3 km (map and profile). The race started at 670 m and finished at 15 m with no categorized climbs along the way, so a bunch finish was expected, and that is what happened.
Milram's goal for the day was to work for Gerald Ciolek. In the initial kilometers, four riders broke free: Cozza (Garmin - Slipstream), Sapa (Lampre), Serrano (Contentpolis) and Ramirez (Andalusia), and had gained 4:25, 100 km into the race. Alejandro Valverde's team, Caisse d'Epargne, set the pace from the beginning, and at about 60 km into the race Cervelo Test Team and Columbia - High Road took over the chase. Early in the race Dom was feeling tired, but he felt better as the kilometers clicked by. At 125 km Dom and Markus Eichler (Team Milram) started contributing to the chase. In the closing 25 km Saxo Bank and Euskaltel - Euskadi also contributed to the chase. The last rider of the original 4 man break, Cozza (Garmin - Slipstream) was finally caught with about 4 km to go. After this, the peloton became disorganized and Team Milram was scattered throughout. Despite the chaos, Gerald Ciolek was positioned well in 5th place about 2 km to go. Unfortunately, about 2 km to go the road was wide, there was a headwind and no team was setting a high tempo so riders came up both sides and Gerald Ciolek lost his good position the second corner before the finish. Nikolai Trussov (Katusha) launched about 500 m to go into the win. No change in GC.
Tomorrow's stage (map and profile) is 150.5 km in length and features a category 2 climb followed by two category 3 climbs. Dom hopes to feel strong and get into a breakaway.
Danny
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