The opening day of the seven-stage race, which features on the International Cycling Union (UCI) World Tour, featured five climbs which were expected to see several of the general classification contenders come to the fore.

Britain’s Chris Froome is among the pre-race favourites, with the reigning Tour de France winner featuring in his first World Tour event of the season.

A three-man breakaway group of Spain’s Lluis Mas, Belgium’s Boris Dron and Australia’s Cameron Meyer moved clear in the early stages of the race and at one stage held a lead of over six minutes.

The trio remained clear until 40km to the finish but were caught on the Montseny, with Belgium’s Louis Vervaeke attempting to launch a counter attack on the descent.

However, the peloton were once again able to haul the move back so a sprint finish look like an inevitability.

Team Sky’s Irish rider Nicholas Roche tried to prevent the sprint by going solo with five kilometres to the finish, but he eventually fell short as the sprinters' teams increased the pace as the finish rapidly drew near.

Bouhanni was eventually able to outsprint Britain’s Ben Swift, who finished second at Milan-San Remo on Saturday (March 19, to claim the stage win in four hours, 28 min and 51 sec.

"It was a nightmare, I had made the coursing perfect until the final sprint,” said Bouhanni, reflecting on a mechanical problem which halted his challenge at Milan-San Remo.

“I spent two nights almost without sleep, but after all the disappointment I decided to come for the team because the Volta is a great race and because it gave me the opportunity to get big wins like this.

"It's a difficult race with so many ups, this stage has shown.”

South Africa’s Daryl Impey, who rides for Orica-GreenEdge, completed the top three on the stage after ending on the same time as Bouhanni and Swift.

Tomorrow will see the peloton tackle a 178km medium mountain stage from Mataró to Olot.