The 2013 Volta a Catalunya was the 93rd running of the Volta a Catalunya cycling stage race. It started on 18 March in Calella, ended on 24 March in Barcelona, and consisted of seven stages. It was the fifth race of the 2013 UCI World Tour season.
The race was won by the Republic of Ireland's Dan Martin of the team, who took the lead after winning the race's queen stage – the fourth stage – to Port Ainé–Rialp, and maintained the overall lead of the race until the end. As a result, Martin – who had previously finished the race in second place twice and fourth place over the previous four years – became the second Irish rider to win the race after Sean Kelly, who won the race in 1984 and 1986. Martin won the general classification by 17 seconds over runner-up Joaquim Rodríguez (), while 's Michele Scarponi completed the podium, 17 seconds behind Rodríguez and 34 seconds down on Martin; Scarponi had started the final stage in fifth place, but moved up after proficient attacking on the closing circuits at Barcelona's Montjuïc hill.
The race's other classifications were dominated by the members of the race's opening stage breakaway; 's Cristiano Salerno was the winner of the red jersey for the mountains classification, while Christian Meier () was the winner of the white jersey for the sprints classification, as well as the yellow jersey for a special sprints classification, honouring the 100th edition of the Tour de France to be held later in the year. were the winners of the teams classification, after also placing Tom Danielson in the top ten overall.
Teams As the Volta a Catalunya was a UCI World Tour event, all UCI ProTeams were invited automatically and obligated to send a squad. Originally, eighteen ProTeams were invited to the race, with four other squads given wildcard places, and as such, would have formed the event's 22-team peloton. subsequently regained their ProTour status after an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
The 22 teams that competed in the race were:
Among the 174-rider start list – each team entered eight riders with the exception of and , who entered seven – were four previous winners of the race. 2007 winner Vladimir Karpets served as a domestique for the 2009 winner Alejandro Valverde in the , while 2010 winner Joaquim Rodríguez was one of the pre-race favourites for . The other previous winner, Michele Scarponi – who won the 2011 edition of the race after Alberto Contador's results were expunged – also served as the leader of his team, leading the squad.
Route +Stage characteristics and winners Stage Date Course Distance Type Winner 1 18 March Calella to Calella 2 19 March Girona to Banyoles 3 20 March Vidreres to Vallter 2000–Setcases Mountain stage 4 21 March Llanars– to Port Ainé–Rialp Mountain stage 5 22 March Rialp to Lleida 6 23 March Almacelles to Valls 7 24 March El Vendrell to Barcelona (Montjuïc)
Stages
Stage 1 18 March 2013 — Calella to Calella,
For the second successive year, the Volta a Catalunya began with a circuit race around the town of Calella. As part of the itinerary, there were five categorised climbs including three ascents of the third-category Alt de Collsacreu, although the most difficult climb of the stage was the first-category Alt de Montseny climb, measuring at an average gradient of 5.6%. Also part of the route were three sprint points; two for the intermediate sprints classification – in Sant Esteve de Palautordera and Calella respectively – and one towards the special sprints classification, in honour of the 100th anniversary of the Tour de France, coming at the point of the stage, in Tordera. A pair of riders – 's Christian Meier and rider Cristiano Salerno – made the primary breakaway from the field, just after the start of the stage.
The duo managed to extend their advantage over the main field to in excess of eight-and-a-half minutes just after the first intermediate sprint point at Sant Esteve de Palautordera. At this point, and the moved their riders to the front of the main field, in order to steadily bring back the lead gap. Meier picked up all the points in relation to the sprints classifications while Salerno accrued enough points in order to pick up the first red jersey as mountains classification leader. The leaders were caught on the day's final climb, the third passage of the Alt de Collsacreu. On the descent, forced the pace through Bradley Wiggins, and the acceleration caused a break in the field and allowed thirteen riders to escape off the front. They remained clear all the way to Calella, where 's Gianni Meersman prevailed in a sprint finish, to take the first leader's jersey via time bonuses.
Stage 1 Result RiderTeamTime 1 2 s.t. 3 s.t. 4 s.t. 5 s.t. 6 s.t. 7 s.t. 8 s.t. 9 s.t. 10 s.t.General Classification after Stage 1 RiderTeamTime 1 2 + 4" 3 + 6" 4 + 10" 5 + 10" 6 + 10" 7 + 10" 8 + 10" 9 + 10" 10 + 10"
Stage 2 19 March 2013 — Girona to Banyoles,
The second stage was set up for the sprinters, much like the first stage, with the race returning to Banyoles for a stage finish, after the town was not part of the race in 2012. After starting in Girona, the itinerary saw the peloton head south towards the coast at Tossa de Mar; it later remained along the coast until Palamós, before heading north and away from the coast. The course eventually headed towards the finish in Banyoles – around north of Girona – where four laps of a circuit were completed before the finish. On the route, there was only one categorised climb – the third-category Mirador de Sant Feliu, just outside Sant Feliu de Guíxols – while there were sprint points in Platja d'Aro and Banyoles, with a special sprint point in between, at the mark in Bordils.
For the second day running, 's Christian Meier was part of the breakaway in order to boost his advantages in both the sprints and special sprints classifications, and to close in on the lead of 's Cristiano Salerno in the mountains classification. Meier was joined in the breakaway by rider Christophe Laborie and Olivier Kaisen of the team, with the trio going clear in the opening moments of the stage. Unlike the previous day, the breakaway was kept in check by the main field – led by the team-mates of the racer leader Gianni Meersman – and their maximum advantage over the course of the day was around three minutes. The trio's lead fluctuated between two-and-a-half and three minutes for most of the day, before being caught on the second lap of the Banyoles circuit. Ultimately, it came down to a sprint for the line – after a four-rider move was caught late on – where were first to create a move for Robert Wagner but could not sustain the pace. Behind, took up the front with Andrew Fenn, and set it up for Meersman, who held off a late spurt from Daniele Ratto () to take back-to-back stage wins, extending his overall lead in the process.
Stage 2 Result RiderTeamTime 1 2 s.t. 3 s.t. 4 s.t. 5 s.t. 6 s.t. 7 s.t. 8 s.t. 9 s.t. 10 s.t.General Classification after Stage 2 RiderTeamTime 1 2 + 14" 3 + 16" 4 + 20" 5 + 20" 6 + 20" 7 + 20" 8 + 20" 9 + 20" 10 + 20"
Stage 3 20 March 2013 — Vidreres to Vallter 2000–Setcases,
The first of two successive summit finishes, the third stage finished above sea level at the ski resort of Vallter 2000 in Setcases, at the top of an hors catégorie ascent. The stage had started just above sea level in Vidreres, taking in two first-category climbs of the Alt de Sant Hilari and at the Túnel Collabós as part of the itinerary. Also on the route were intermediate sprint points in Vidreres itself, as well as Sant Esteve d'en Bas, with the special sprint point sandwiched in between, at the mark, in Anglès. The final climb to Vallter 2000 was around in length, with an average gradient of around 7.3%, reaching 14% in places. It was expected to shake up the general classification with overall leader Gianni Meersman () unlikely to hold his 14-second lead beyond the stage.
Four riders – Martin Kohler of the , 's Lucas Sebastián Haedo, Karol Domagalski () and rider Nicolas Edet – advanced clear of the main field after of the stage, and managed to extend their advantage to a maximum of around seven-and-a-half minutes around later. The quartet remained together until the day's second first-category climb, at the Túnel Collabós, where Edet and Domagalski went on ahead of their two companions. At the summit of the climb, Edet and Domagalski held a lead of around five minutes over the peloton. As the two leaders moved towards the final climb, Haedo and Kohler were gradually being brought back to the main field, and the peloton eventually caught them in between climbs. Edet dropped Domagalski on the lower slopes of the final climb, and he resisted being caught until inside of remaining.
's Jurgen Van den Broeck was first to reach Edet, before Edet exhaustedly faded back to the peloton. Van Den Broeck remained off the front for a couple of kilometres, before and brought him back with added impetus on the front of the main field. The latter squad's protected rider for the race, Tom Danielson – in his first race back after a six-month ban for admitting to doping earlier in his career – attacked before he was brought back shortly after. Bradley Wiggins was next to attack for at the flamme rouge, and was closely followed by rider Nairo Quintana. Quintana followed Wiggins up the climb, and blocked off an attack by Joaquim Rodríguez (), and soloed away to a six-second winning margin over team-mate Alejandro Valverde, who also beat Rodríguez and Wiggins to the line. As a result, Valverde assumed the race lead from Meersman, four seconds ahead of both Wiggins and Rodríguez.
Stage 3 Result RiderTeamTime 1 2 + 6" 3 + 6" 4 + 6" 5 + 9" 6 + 9" 7 + 9" 8 + 9" 9 + 9" 10 + 21"General Classification after Stage 3 RiderTeamTime 1 2 + 4" 3 + 4" 4 + 7" 5 + 7" 6 + 26" 7 + 30" 8 + 30" 9 + 30" 10 + 35"
Stage 4 21 March 2013 — Llanars– to Port Ainé–Rialp,
The queen stage of the 2013 Volta a Catalunya, the fourth stage was also its longest with the riders enduring a parcours of before reaching the summit finish at the Pyrenean ski station of Port Ainé. The climb to Port Ainé was one of five categorised climbs during the stage; of note, were the first-category Alt de Pedraforca climb a third of the way through the stage, as well as the two difficult hors-catégorie climbs of the Port de Cantó – at 4.8% – and the climb to Port Ainé, an long climb (at an average of 6.5%) with the finish at just below above sea level. Both hors-catégorie climbs had been scheduled to be a part of the queen stage in 2012, but were omitted from the route due to heavy snow, which ultimately led to the stage being shortened, in progress.
The race remained as a whole for the majority of the first hour of racing, with the breakaway only forming on the day's first climb, the Coll de Merolla, around into the stage. Initially, four riders – 's Fabio Aru, Ryder Hesjedal of , rider Robert Kišerlovski and Yuri Trofimov for – got clear on the climb itself and were later joined on the descent by a further nineteen riders, swelling the lead group to a total of twenty-three. With most teams represented in the group, the gap to the peloton was allowed to reach around three minutes before the pace was accelerated. Around the halfway mark, the were reduced by two members, as both Eros Capecchi and the overall leader Alejandro Valverde had to abandon the race due to a crash, leaving both riders sore but unable to continue. Prior to Valverde's withdrawal, the pace dropped in the main field, allowing the breakaway to extend their lead over four minutes for a period.