As Juan Ayuso celebrated a narrow but well-deserved victory at the Volta a Catalunya's first summit finish at La Molina, at least two of his key rivals were left reflecting on a high mountain stage which created more questions than it did real answers.
'That was una locura [crazy]," former Tour de France winner Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) said afterwards, succinctly pointing out that "we got to the finish and there was a huge group in a sprint in a stage with 5,000 metres of climbing".
"People were going really fast, but we got through fine even if my feelings weren't overly great today."
La Molina is something of a special finish for Bernal, as it was where he turned in one of his top early performances as a racer: Back in 2018, in one of his first races at WorldTour level with his current team - at the time still sponsored by Sky, a 21-year-old Bernal finished a hugely impressive second behind fellow-Colombian Miguel Angel López.
This time around, Bernal could also be satisfied, given he is on the comeback trail from a broken collarbone earlier this season and La Molina was his first major mountain stage since his injury and return to racing.
"It was a very tough stage, but I'm happy I could save the day, and get through," Bernal, seventh on the stage and running tenth overall, said afterwards. "Now I just need to rest and do the next stages as well as possible."
Pipped at the line by Juan Ayuso, Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) said initially that the sprint had been so close he didn't know whether he had been ahead or not. But the Slovenian, in any case, lived up to his status of pre-race favourite, and in just his second race of 2025, is clearly firing on many, if not all, cylinders.
"I don't know exactly if I was first or second, but it is OK," Roglic told the TV Slovenija channel in a brief statement before heading back to the team bus.
"I feel OK, the other guys are also strong. As I always say, there were a lot of strong cyclists, so it wasn't at all easy. But there was still a group and a sprint at the end."
With the exception of the ferocious last dash for the line by Roglič, Ayuso, et al, it's fair to say that the La Molina stage did not really provide any clear conclusions regarding La Volta's GC battle. The previous ascent of La Creueta, 20 kilometres long, failed to see any moves go clear, and then on La Molina, barring one brief dig by former winner Ben O'Connor (Jayco-AlUla) there was no real GC action until the very last kilometre.
It now remains to be seen if Thursday's high mountain stage to Montserrat, for all its comparative ease, will produce a very different kind of outcome.
