A spectacular last-minute turn of fortune saw Primoz Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) succeed fellow Slovenian Tadej Pogačar as the winner of the Volta a Catalunya - but thanks to a radically different set of circumstances and strategies.
After the main mountain stage had been cancelled and with only one final day's racing remaining, Roglič and race leader arch-rival Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) were still only separated by one second at the top of the overall classification.
The Spaniard's advantage was so slight that it was clear that the battle could go down to the wire - a very different situation to 2024 where Pogačar's domination was clear from the beginning of the race.
Already the winner of the Volta a Catalunya in 2023, from the moment the stage rolled out of Barcelona, Roglič made it clear he was not going to let the chance of a second victory go by, claiming a three-second advantage and tipping the overall battle into his favour by winning a first intermediate sprint.
However, Ayuso then regained the lead by taking a second intermediate sprint, forcing Roglič to gamble it all on an all-out attack on the multiple laps of Montjuic Park that concluded the stage.
The Slovenian delivered a searing charge on the steepest part of the circuit climb with some 22 kilometres to go, and as Ayuso unexpectedly struggled, Roglič forged on with a small but ultimately definitive advantage. Come the finish and despite multiple counterattacks, he was still ahead by nearly 20 seconds, clinching his second stage win and the overall, as well as the points and mountains classification - all in one fell swoop.
"It's nice to be able to finish it off, I did a great sprint, too [mid-stage] even though I'm not a sprinter," Roglič told race organisation TV afterwards.
"I don't want to do sprints, I want to decide a race in the mountains or the climbs."
"But then it came down to the bonus seconds and in the end, I had the legs."
After becoming provisional leader on the road on stage 7, but then losing it again a little later, Roglič said he had had no choice but to attack if he wanted to win the eleventh week-long WorldTour race of his career for sure.
"I had to do something," Roglič explained. "I always say that Catalunya is an honest race where the legs are talking. But I really didn't have a great feeling until the last stage."
"The big mountain stage was cancelled, but fortunately or luckily everything came down to this. The team's been working well, we had a good time and I really enjoyed this week."
Win or lose, Roglič's spectacular breakaway on the last day through Montjuic ensured a spectacular finale to a Volta after the first two summit finishes failed to create major differences on GC and the third was cancelled completely.
The Slovenian had not dominated the Volta with the same utter ease as Pogačar last year, but he nonetheless managed to create a thrilling last-minute battle, rather than the final victory being decided just by bonus seconds.
"It's nice taking this stage, too, after two second-place finishes here [in Montjuic, in 2023 and in 2016]" Roglič added. "And really nice to finish alone. I didn't have to sprint!"
"It's hard to plan this final stage, I didn't really think about it before. I just had to do it today and it was fun, I enjoyed it a lot."
After conquering the Volta a Catalunya, just the second race of his season, Roglič's win will doubtless create a major morale boost, too for himself and his team going forward towards the biggest goal of his first part of the season at the Giro d'Italia.
"It's nice to see that we trained well, it went really well, but I didn't know how it would go," Roglič added. "But then with all the crowds on the climbs, all that support - you really train for moments like this."
"So now I'll have a bit of a holiday, then back to the routine and some training camps, and then I'll slowly build up towards the Giro."
"This win doesn't really influence the outcome of the Giro," Roglič concluded, "but it's really nice to get this along the way."
