Key summit finish canceled in Volta a Catalunya over possible avalanches

Race organisers announced late Tuesday that the 2018 Volta a Catalunya's toughest stage on Wednesday will no longer tackle the final, 12-kilometre Vallter 2000 ascent due to a risk of snow.

Rather than the three first category climbs, the Bracons, Port d'Oix and Rocabruna and the Vallter 2000 final ascent in a 199km stage, the new stage 3 will be much shorter at 153km. It will have just one first category climb mid-stage - the Bracons - and a second category, the Port de Collabos, 13 kilometres from the new finish in the town of Camprodon.

The new finish will also be 1,000 metres above sea level, rather than the 2,000 metres previously planned, making for a much easier stage. At the moment there are no plans to change stage 4, which has a summit finish in Alp-La Molina in the Pyrenees.

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A 'crisis committee' meeting held after stage 2, which included team and riders representatives as well as the race doctor, the president of the commissaires and the race president, agreed on the change, which could have a massive knock-on effect on the battle for the general classification in this year's Volta. At the moment last year's winner Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) holds a narrow lead after taking stage 2.

Although temperatures well below freezing were forecast for the Vallter summit finish on Wednesday, race director Ruben Peris argued that "This change isn't so much because it's expected to snow, because in fact it's likely that it will be sunny."

However, it has snowed heavily early this week in parts of Catalunya in an exceptionally cold spring, and as Peris said "There is a risk of avalanches" - of snow - "on the climb," hence the change.

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