The 2013 Tour de France winner- Chris Froome (Team Sky) had to withdraw from the 2014 Tirreno-Adriatico due to a serious back injury. Along with that, it was decided that Chris Froome should not take any risks so that he can come back with a bang at the Volta a Catalunya which was starting on the 24th of March, 2014.
During the start of the tour, Chris Froome performed really well. He was actually able to reach the third position in the overall standing after third stage of the 2014 Volta a Catalunya was over on the 26th of March. It seemed that Froome had recovered appropriately from his injury.
Before the final stage of Volta a Catalunya, Chris Froome had reached the sixth position in the overall standing. Froome was of the opinion that he would obviously not win the final stage but he at least got the opportunity to engage in a good weeklong racing.
During the final stage, Froome could not improve his standing and remained in the sixth position. Lieuwe Westra (Team Astana) won the last stage and Chris Froome stood 13th in the final stage of the tour.
Chris Froome had actually mentioned earlier that the tour was more suitable for the likes of Alberto Contador and Joaquim Rodriguez and this turned out to be true. 2014 Volta a Catalunya was won by the Spaniard Joaquim Rodriguez (Team Katusha) and Alberto Contador (Team Tinkoff-Saxo) came second. Tejay Van Garderen (Team BMC Racing) stood third in the general classification.
According to Froome, racing under the influence of these harsh weather conditions has been a fun experience for him and he thinks this experience will help in the future races.
Overall the Volta a Catalunya 2014 was quite exciting as popular cyclists like Alberto Contador, Tejay Van Garderen etc performed exceptionally well.