Antón falls short in first Catalunya test

Igor Antón and his Euskaltel team-mates showed there's still work to be done to reach top form as the guys in orange were comprehensively out-climbed at the Volta a Catalunya's first summit finish on Wednesday.

Movistar's pocket-sized ace climber Nairo Quintana came out tops at the end of the 180km stage to the top of the Vallter 2000/Setcases climb, besting fellow blue-clad rider Alejandro Valverde and Joaquim Rodríguez. Valverde holds the overall lead going into day four, though, leading Wiggins and Rodríguez by four seconds in second and third respectively.

Igor Antón's consistent ride landed him 14th on the day, 27 seconds down, but his lack of racing days showed as his lack of spark left him drained towards the end and well and truly buried any overall ambitions he might have had going into the race.

He was ambitious, though, dragging with him a healthy number of team-mates towards the pointy end of the peloton at the start of the 12km final climb, but when the favourites lit the blue touch paper inside the final four clicks it was obvious he wasn't to emerge victorious.

Mikel Nieve came in five seconds further back in 23rd place, never really figuring near the front, while Mikel Astarloza climbed better than he's done in a long time to finish 40th, 1:25 back.

With four stages to go, Antón is the team's best rider on GC in 17th.

Results (full results here):

• (1, Nairo Quintana (Movistar), 5:01:20)
• 14, Igor Antón, 0:27
• 23, Mikel Nieve, 0:32
• 40, Mikel Astarloza, 1:25
• 48, Mikel Landa, 2:01
• 86, Juan José Oroz, 6:17
• 96, Ricardo Mestre, 7:43
• 142, Tarik Chaoufi, 14:36
• 161, Jon Aberasturi, 16:54

Photo: Euskaltel Euskadi