Six climbs on today’s route, so of course it’s a bunch sprint at the end!

Volta Catalunya Stage 1: Calella to Calella, 178.9km

FDJ’s Davide Cimolai held off a determined, if wayward, Nacer Bouhanni (Cofidis) to claim his first victory for his new team, the leader’s jersey and an FDJ trademark victoire gif . Kristian Sbaragli (Dimension-Data) rounded out the podium.

Highlights (we pick it up with about 8km to go)…

FDJ’s  Arthur Vichot played the perfect poisson pilote in the final kilometre #bleublancrougehugs…

First race in this Europe for the Brazilian team Funvic/Brasil. They got two riders in the break of the day and came away with King of the Mountains podium time for Murillo Affonso.

Typical Spanish sprint stage: 2 x Cat 1, 1 x Cat 2 and 3 x Cat 3. All this and save some energy for the 41.3km TTT on stage 2… #carnage

Full report at Cycling News.

Race Website  Race Twitter #VoltaCatalunya

Header image: So Close between Davide Cimolai and Nacer Bouhanni  © JOSEP LAGO/AFP/Getty Images