Fifteen years after Mark Cavendish won his first WorldTour race at the 2007 Volta a Catalunya, his young British teammate and fellow sprinter Ethan Vernon (Quick Step-Alfa Vinyl) took his first career win.

Vernon, who has been a pro for only three months, beat experienced sprinter Phil Bauhaus (Bahrain-Victorias), who had just won a stage at Tirreno-Adriatico.

Vernon proved to be the fastest in Vilanova y la Gertrud, but the race was broken up by an intermediate sprint late in the race, and teammate Ilien van Wilder suffered a crash in the last kilometer.

After a few wins in lower category races such as the 4 days of Dunkerque and the famous Scheldeprijs, Cavendish took two wins in the 2007 Volta a Catalunya.

Asked by Cycling News if Cavendish's early victory in Catalunya made his breakthrough more special, Vernon grinned and replied, "Definitely."

"He's been my role model since I started in the sport. I was lucky enough to room with him at winter training camp and he stayed with me. Hopefully I can have a similar career as him.

Vernon, who finished fourth in the group sprint in Perpignan on Tuesday, said he and his team have corrected the mistakes of the previous group dash.

"We weren't too far off then, but we realized where we went wrong and tried to fix it today. It was pretty twisty at the end and after the intermediate sprint the guys pulled me back. Thanks to my teammates I was able to win

"There was a crash in the last kilometer, which I was lucky to avoid. But I found a good wheel with 500 meters to go and kept going from there."

After the Catalunya Volta, Vernon said that the full race program for 2022 has not yet been decided, but the next event will be at the Circuit de la Sarthe in France.