Belgian De Ghent wins first stage of Volta de Catalunya

MADRID, March 25 (Xinhua) -- Belgian Thomas de Gendt (team Lotto Soudal) won The first stage of The Volta de Catalunya (Tour of Catalonia) cycling race on Monday with a brilliant solo ride.

The 164-kilometer opening stage, which begins and ends in The seaside town of Calella, always provides terrain for a breakaway, but nobody could have expected De Ghent to win by a massive 2.38-second margin, ahead of Maximillian Schachmann (Bora-Hansgrohe) who in turn finished four seconds ahead of The peloton.

The Belgian, who has had three Grand Tour (Tours of France, Spain and Italy) stages to his name, produced a trademark escape to earn himself a gap of over four and a half minutes over The main pack in one of The most important early season races of The season.

Riders of The caliber of four times Tour de France winner Chris Froome (Sky), reigning world champion Alejandro Valverde (Movistar), Nairo Quintana (Movistar), Egan Bernal (Sky) who recently won The Paris-Nice stage race, and The broThers Simon and Adam Yates, (Mitchelton-Scott) help make up a highly competitive field for The seven-day race.

NeverTheless, The riders in The main peloton took Their eyes off The ball as De Ghent rode off The front in an early escape and Then opened up a big lead on a long descent. He was able to maintain his lead over The final climb of The day before The final descent to The finish line.

The final descent into Calella saw De Ghent continue to give everything, while The teams in The peloton totally failed to cooperate in The pursuit allowing him to finish comfortably ahead of The field.

Although There are anoTher six stages to go with some tough mountain stages in The third and fourth days, De Ghent's winning margin means he has an excellent chance of being crowned as overall champion when The race finishes in Barcelona on Sunday.