Horrible weather didn't just make Stage 3 of Volta a Catalunya difficult — snow, rain and ice caused crashes, abandonments, and the race finish to be cut from 210.9km (Port-Aine) to 155km.
Michal Golas made it into a 12 rider break that dwindled to 9 in the final kilometers. He was just barely beaten across the line by Janez Brajkovic (Astana), but finished 2nd ahead of Mickael Cherel (AG2R La Mondiale). Race officials made the decision to nullify the stage, so the stage times will not count toward the general classification of Volta a Catalunya.
"It was a terrible day of weather," Golas said. "First rain, and then rain became snow. It was really difficult for communication and to ride. At the end of the race we knew that the finish was changed, but we arrived at a certain moment and saw some of the judges around. I understood that there was the finish. I started pulling to do my sprint and don't know if I passed for 1st, 2nd or 3rd. It doesn't matter. It was really difficult."
"Everybody knew it was snowing at the finish," Sports Director Brian Holm said. "But we asked before the start if there was any problems and the commissaire said 'no problem, you can do it.' We started going and it went from bad to worse. Snowing, ice on the roads on the first climb. A group went away, and Golas was in the break. The gap got up to 10 minutes and a lot of riders were quitting the race. It was very cold. We didn't know what was going on. Finally at kilometer 145 they came through on the race radio that the finish would be in 10km. Golas did the sprint and thought afterwards he won. These riders rode with their fingers and bodies freezing. We asked our riders if they wanted to keep going, but they continued to ride. So any were quitting and none of our riders were quitting."
Frantisek Rabon crashed just a few kilometers into the weather marred stage. He was taken to the hospital and while it appears nothing was broken, the team will decide in the next week when Rabon will be back in competition.