Volta a Catalunya – Stage 3 – Jerome Coppel: «At La Molina, I think it will be even better»

With the mountains and narrow roads, the peloton once again tasted the particular flavors of the Tour of Catalonia.  And for once with no rain, it could have seemed to be a day of grace for the riders.  Certainly the happiest among the riders in the peloton was Domenico Pozzovivo (AG2R La Mondiale), who succeeded in eking out a solo victory just three seconds in front of his breakaway companions who separated themselves from the rest over the top of the final climb. For IAM Cycling’s Jarlinson Pantano and Jérôme Coppel, both of whom are fond of this sort of terrain, managed to finish well.  Pantano came in 22” back with the main peloton, and Coppel was then just 1’34” behind the winner.

Though there are days when good luck rides side by side with you, on other days, it seems to ignore you completely.  For Jérôme Coppel during this third stage in Catalonia, it seemed that good luck had forgotten his name.  “The pace was really fast, so I stayed attentive and concentrated,” Coppel explained.  “Unfortunately, there was a crash on the descent of the second to last climb and it split the group in two.  We never managed to chase back up to the best placed.  It was a bit complicated on the final climb, but it will be better tomorrow.  I feel good, and as I began to pick up the pace, the sensations are not so bad, so we’ll wait and see how the arrival to La Molina goes on Thursday.  I think I will be better than today.”

Mario Chiesa, directeur sportif for IAM Cycling, shared his rider’s sentiments.  “For me, the major obstacles of the stage, besides the five climbs, were the five descents.  The roads were narrow and that’s what caused the crash in the bunch.  Thursday’s stage will be a little different compared to today since the roads were not very wide, and they just went up or they went down.  For the arrival in La Molina, it will be a summit finish, so there will be no need for a dangerous descent.  I think that riders like Pantano and Coppel will be able to perform even better than today.  So we must accept we just had bad luck on this stage, and know that if it had not happened like that for us, the result at the finish likely would have been different as well.”