Alejandro Valverde leads Movistar one-two at Volta Ciclista

Martin Elmiger (IAM Cycling) took third as the race travelled 191.8 kilometres from Mataro to Olot in north eastern Spain.

Maciej Paterski (CCC Sprandi Polkowice), Pierre Rolland (Europcar) and Bart De Clercq (Lotto Soudal) remained one-two-three respectively in the standings following their successful three-man breakaway act in the opening stage.

Valverde sits two minutes and 48 seconds off the pace, but moved into fourth in the general classification following his victory on Tuesday.

“More than doing it to take sprinters out of the fight, the team pushed into the final kilometres to keep ourselves well placed against the rain and any danger that could show up," Valverde said.

"All of my team-mates were always focused on avoiding any problems, bringing us weather clothes, food... I want to thank all of them as well as the whole team for their huge work."

1 Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar Team 5:02:49

2 Jose Joaquin Rojas (Spa) Movistar Team

3 Martin Elmiger (Swi) IAM Cycling

4 Jonathan Hivert (Fra) Bretagne-Séché Environnement

5 Wilco Kelderman (Ned) Team LottoNL-Jumbo

6 Julien Simon (Fra) Cofidis, Solutions Credits

7 Eduard Prades Reverte (Spa) Caja Rural-Seguros RGA

8 Fabio Silvestre (Por) Trek Factory Racing

9 Pavel Kochetkov (Rus) Team Katusha

10 Davide Malacarne (Ita) Astana Pro Team

1 Maciej Paterski (Pol) CCC Sprandi Polkowice 9:36:20

2 Pierre Rolland (Fra) Team Europcar 0:00:04

3 Bart De Clercq (Bel) Lotto Soudal 0:00:08

4 Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar Team 0:02:40

5 Jose Joaquin Rojas (Spa) Movistar Team 0:02:44

6 Martin Elmiger (Swi) IAM Cycling 0:02:46

7 Wouter Poels (Ned) Team Sky 0:02:47

8 Nicolas Roche (Irl) Team Sky 0:02:48

9 Daniel Martin (Irl) Cannondale-Garmin Pro Cycling Team 0:02:49

10 Julien Simon (Fra) Cofidis, Solutions Credits 0:02:50