Updated
The Australian won the 1st stage of the Tour of Catalonia in a sprint ahead of the Italian Sonny Colbrelli, who suffered a cardiac massage following the finish.
Nobody might follow the Australian in the home straight.
Australian Michael Matthews (BikeExchange) beat European champion Italian Sonny Colbrelli to win the first stage of the Tour of Catalonia in a sprint on Monday in Sant Feliu de Guixols.
Two days following taking fourth place in Milan-Sanremo, Matthews was fastest in an uphill false flat sprint, just like in 2019, when the previous finish in Sant Feliu de Guixols.
The French Quentin Pacher took third place in the stage of this race which is deprived of its outgoing winner, the Briton Adam Yates, who had been announced at first.
Colbrelli in the hospital
Just following the finish, Sonny Colbrelli had a heart attack. The medical services performed cardiac massage on the last winner of Paris-Roubaix who regained consciousness before being directed to a hospital, according to several Spanish media.
The Tour of Catalonia was the recovery race for Colbrelli who, ill, had abandoned Paris-Nice on March 7, on the morning of the second stage. He then gave up Milan-Sanremo, the first major classic of the season that his Slovenian teammate Matej Mohoric won on Saturday.
Aged 31 and a professional since 2011, Colbrelli has shifted into high gear over the past year. He accumulated success from the Dauphiné in June, notably by winning the Italian championship then the European championship.
In October, the Italian finally took the most important of his 34 victories in a fall edition of Paris-Roubaix marred by bad weather.
Mixed fortunes for the Swiss
For their part, the two Swiss engaged on the Catalan roads have experienced different days. Sébastien Reichenbach ranked 65th in the peloton with the time of the winner, while Matteo Badilatti came 143rd, with the gruppetto which recorded a delay of 16’54”.
Matthews, 31, had not won since his success in the Bretagne Classic in August 2020. The Australian will wear the leader’s jersey on Tuesday in the second stage (202.5 km). The route will connect L’Escala, in Spain, to the French city of Perpignan, where the last appearance of the Catalan event dates back to 1955.
(AFP / Sport-Center)
