Amidst all of the Spring Classics that are taking place in Europe at the moment, the Volta a Catalunya offers an opportunity for the GC specialists to grab some glory during this rather sparse period of the season for them.
However, absent from the start list are the two best GC riders in the world at the moment, defending Volta champion Pogačar is choosing instead to focus on the Spring Classics, whilst Vingegaard has been forced to drop out of the race late on after injuring his hand in a crash in Paris-Nice.
Their rival Remco Evenepoel is also sidelined through injury, as he is still recovering from his crash last December, which left him with a fractured rib, shoulder blade and hand. He is expected to make his return just in time for the Ardennes Classics at De Brabantse Pijl.
In the Belgian’s absence, the Soudal Quick-Step squad will be led by last year’s Volta a Catalunya runner-up Mikel Landa, who believes that the power vacuum left by the ‘big three’ makes for a much more open and aggressive battle for the overall victory at the race.
Landa, who finished runner-up in 2024 and fifth in 2023 at the Volta, has taken part in countless races with both Vingegaard and Pogačar, and he believes that “there’s a different kind of mentality without them.”
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“When they [Vingegaard and Pogačar] are there, people settle for second or are waiting for them to break open the race and for them to start attacking,” the Soudal-Quick Step rider told Cycling News during the Volta countdown.
“So that really affects the way the race develops. It’ll be a much more open race without them, probably there’ll be a a nice fight between [Primoz] Roglič and [Juan] Ayuso.”
“Those two should dominate but the rest of us could be close behind. Even though there’s so many mountain stages, the Volta is a race that often ends up being decided by just a few seconds and this year might not be any different.”
The toughness of the Volta route is its defining characteristic. Having ridden the race on six occasions, with his debut participation coming in 2013 with Euskaltel-Euskadi, Landa stated that “I’d say it’s one of the stage races that’s changed the least since I started racing.”
“When I started as a pro, it was always very hard, and very fast, and it still is. There are virtually no sprinters taking part, so even on the flatter stages, riders can try to break away.”
“There’s always something going on. The seven days are always very hard, even the easier stages normally have 2,000 or 3,000 vertical metres of climbing. So it makes for a very intense week.”
Landa himself is in encouragingly strong form and is optimistic of a strong result, having just taken eleventh in Strade Bianche and seventh in Tirreno-Adriatico, even if he knows the Volta offers much tougher challenges than any race seen so far this year.
Futhermore, as one of the many top riders set to race both the Giro d’Italia and Tour de France this season, Landa also values the Volta as a reference point for how he’ll be performing on the big climbs in May.
“Last year worked out very well, this year I’m in good shape too, so I’ll see if I can be close to the best.”
“Whatever happens, though, in weeklong stage races, it’s very hard to find stages with so many mountains as you get in Catalunya, with vertical climbing of four to five thousand metres some days. That’s very similar to the last week of the Giro, so it’s also very useful for later.”
When it comes to climbing challenges, stage 6 features a formidable series of high mountains in central Catalunya, ending with the category 1 ascent to Queralt, making it the toughest day in the race, just as it was in 2024.
“It’ll be a stage for the bravest of riders,” Landa says, “I remember last year how nothing much happened on the toughest climb [the Hors Categorie Col de Pradell – Ed.] but then in the two that followed, Pogačar attacked and blew the race apart. But the summit finish stage to Monserrat [stage 4] will already have created GC differences as well.”
“Really, though, even the last stage through Montjuic in the Volta can decide the overall. There’s a first high mountain stage to La Molina [stage 3] but I remember in 2022 how Sergio Higuita and Richard Carapaz weren’t the strongest there or maybe even in the race overall, but they managed to turn things around completely in a hillly stage just before the last day.”
“For me, this race is never over until you reach the final finish line.”
What also adds to the Volta’s intensity, Landa points out, is that for some top riders, Catalunya is their last race prior to the Giro d’Italia, so that provides an extra degree of motivation to leave no stone unturned in their search for optimal performance.
“For me personally, there’s still too far to go to the Giro start to test myself fully, it’s not like the time gap between the Dauphiné or Suisse, say, compared to the Tour de France.”
“But for riders like Roglič and Ayuso, it’s their last race until Italy and in some cases they’ve not raced for a while either. So in the Volta, they’re going to want to put it all out there.”
The Volta a Catalunya begins on Monday, with the opening stage starting in Sant Feliu de Guíxols. The race will then traverse much of the region on the Mediterranean Coast before the final stage on the Montjuïc circuit in Barcelona next Sunday.
