Primoz Roglic took an emphatic solo win on Volta a Catalunya's final stage, sealing the general classification for the race for Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe.
The Slovenian's dominance on the streets of Barcelona saw him cross the line 14 seconds ahead of Laurens De Plus (Ineos Grenadiers) and Lennert Van Eetvelt (Lotto), who rounded off the podium and secured himself the jersey in the overall standings, points and mountain classifications.
Previous leader and UAE Emirates XRG's Juan Ayuso struggled on the final day which meant Roglic finished the multi-stage event 28 seconds ahead of the Spanish rider with Movistar’s Enric Mas trailing 53 seconds in the general classification.
How it happened
Ayuso came into the final stage in Catalunya ahead with Roglic only a second behind and a comfortable gap ahead of the rest of the contenders.
But it did not take long for Red Bull's Roglic to turn on the gas by winning the first intermediate bonus sprint at the beginning of the final stage, Roglic usurped Ayuso as the virtual general classification leader, with the Spanish rider finishing third in the sprint.
With 47km to go, Roglic was poorly positioned going into the next sprint, and instead, teammate Nico Denz sprinted against Ayuso, who failed to deny the Spanish rider for another time, who took the three bonus seconds.
The race started to fracture with less than 40km to go, as riders tried to break away and open gaps, with the legendary Montjuic climb proving to be a continually decisive part of the race.
Attacks from both Tom Donnenwirth (Groupama–FDJ) and Jokin Murguialday (Euskaltel–Euskadi) were attempted, but both were unable to maintain their gap and were quickly reeled in.
And yet, with 21km to go, Roglic made his solo attack on the Montjuic and opened up a small gap before the fast descent with Ayuso, de Plus and Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) starting to chase down the Slovenian, but with 17km remaining, he had pushed for a 20-second lead.
The chase group were eventually caught by the peloton on the climb with 13km to go, where Ayuso was swallowed up by the pack and unable to respond.
As Ayuso was out of sight and only 10km until the finish, Mas then leapt to catch the race leader alongside Mikel Landa (Soudal–Quick-Step), Axel Laurance (Ineos Grenadiers), and van Eetvelt with an 18-second gap to reduce.
But Roglic entered the final lap still 18 seconds clear of the Mas-led chasers, who had now been caught again by the peloton with Adam Yates providing crucial support for teammate Ayuso to keep him in contention.
After the final climb of the Montjuic, Van Eetvelt and De Plus made one final attack and were able to reel Roglic by only a few seconds, but the Slovenian remained dominant with his mastery on the bends and closed out the race on his own and 14 seconds clear of the chasers and 19 ahead of the peloton.
The brilliant attack led by Roglic which started with three laps to go of the stage, proved to be the decisive moment for his eventual stage win and general classification victory over rival Ayuso.
