From the most decisive mountain day to 145 kilometres of flat to a near-criterium just 25 kilometres long: the continual changes in format of stage 6 of the Volta a Catalunya left riders as confused, bewildered and – in some cases at least – disappointed that what should have been a major day of racing ended up all but shorn of any real significance.
There were huge crowds at the improvised finish in Berga, which to the credit of the organisers, had been rapidly and effectively set up to try and give the thousands of fans present for what should have been a finish in the nearby summit of Queralt something to cheer and watch.
The winning ceremony was run off efficiently too, and riders could find their way to the team buses, parked just a few kilometres away without too much difficulty after the finish.
Yet the central question, of what sense, if any, it had made to hold the stage, could hardly fail to be present in the riders’ minds. Even Quinn Simmons, whose finely calculated late breakaway ended in a well-deserved victory, admitted afterwards that his Lidl-Trek team had voted not to start the stage.
But if Simmons could reap the benefits of the opposite happening and take the triumph on the day, most riders were simply glad to get a chaotic and hugely unsatisfying day for almost everybody out of the way.
Asked by Cycling News if he had ever raced a stage as unusual as that, Visma-Lease a Bike’s Sepp Kuss said simply “No, not really, it felt like the last day of a Grand Tour, easy and then full gas.
“But it was kind of a sad day, for the organisation and the fans, but the weather… when there’s a government warning [about bad weather] then there’s only so much you can do.”
The irony that the weather improved dramatically throughout the day was lost on nobody. By the time the stage finished, the wind that was causing branches to break off trees and strike team buses in the morning had dropped away to just the occasional gust.
But the risk of a much more dangerous weather scenario had definitely been present when the stage got underway. So what had initially been planned as two fully raced circuits shrank to a neutralised circuit and one fully raced, and eventually, just 28 kilometres of actual live action.
“I think doing two wasn’t necessary,” Kuss told Cycling News. “It was going to be the same result anyway, everybody did the best they could.”
“It was just a super-confusing day,” added race leader Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) afterwards to a small group of reporters.
“I think the organisers did a very good job to adapt everything because first all of this [the race infrastructure] was at the top and they managed to get everything down as best they could.”
“All the spectators came down as well, they managed to organise everything very quickly.”
“And yeah, they made the best decision to do one lap neutralised to see if it was secure to race on and then another to actually race it.”
“But midway through [the first lap] some riders started saying they should start the race now and at the end that decision was made.”
Although it was unclear who said what, at least some riders were apparently complaining that if they continued at the relatively slow pace, the second lap would make for a very late finish. Combined with the early start on Sunday, not to mention the hour change and a transfer to central Barcelona, it would have made for a difficult situation, they argued.
“I think the parcours we did was completely safe to race on, probably if we’d have gone up to the high climbs where it was more exposed it’d have been much more dangerous,” Ayuso pointed out. “But the parcours we did was perfectly safe.
“So it is a pity we didn’t end up racing more or doing a lap more.”
Rather than being excessive disagreement at the start between different teams over what could happen, Ayuso said that there was a great deal of confusion, with decisions having to be communicated rapidly but between large numbers of people making it hard to know what was happening.
“It was just confusing, you speak with one and then when you’ve done that you have to repeat to another to get the message round and then the message changes and you have to repeat yourself again.”
“With so many people involved, it’s always difficult to get on the same page and keep everybody informed.”
“Of course the organisers wanted the race to happen, but they did a very good job of making the race safe first. They kept the race safe, and I feel for them because it’s a pity that we didn’t do one lap more.”
“And there are so many people here, they deserved to see more. At least they got something, but they deserved more.”
So the race GC battle now swings back to Sunday, where with just one second separating Ayuso and closest rival Primož Roglič it seems certain that there will be a real showdown in the climbs of Montjuïc Park.
“It’ll be for sure an interesting battle for sure,” Kuss concluded. “It’ll be an entertaining race seeing Primož and Ayuso going head to head.”
