Primož Roglič (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) took his second stage win at the Volta Ciclista a Catalunya following a stunning solo ride, wrapping up the general classification on an explosive final stage in Barcelona.
The Slovenian launched an attack on the Montjuïc climb 20 kilometres from the finish and maintained his lead all the way to the line. Second place went to Laurens de Plus (Ineos-Grenadiers) and third to Lotto’s Lennert van Eetvelt.
A thrilling battle for bonus seconds at the day’s two intermediate sprints preceded the fight for the stage, with Roglič and Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) exchanging the leader’s jersey twice, but Ayuso was unable to match Roglič’s superior tempo following his attack and was forced to relinquish his leader’s jersey on the final day of the race. The Spaniard finished second overall, 28 seconds adrift of Roglič, with Enric Mas (Movistar) completing the GC podium, at 0:53.
A jubilant Roglič spoke to reporters following the conclusion of the race. “For me, it was about time, no? Here I was already, like, two times second and, yeah, it's nice to finish it off. We did actually great sprint. I mean, I really don't want to do these things, you know?
"I want to decide it, on the mountains or on the climbs. But at the end, [it] came down to bonus seconds and fighting till the last stage. And at the end, I had the legs. Also, after the second bonus sprint, I had no choice. So if I wanted to win, I had to do something.
“Normally I always say, you know, Catalunya is an honest race, you know, the legs are talking, but here I didn't really have the feeling till the very end stage, you know, because it was really tight.
"The big mountain stage yesterday that I was hoping for was cancelled. So, unfortunately, or luckily, depends how you see it, everything came down to the last stage. The team was working well. I mean, we are racing, nice. We had a good time and really enjoyed this week.
“I just had great fun here. Didn't know exactly how it [would go]. Then pretty soon I figured out that, yes, obviously I'm ready. The legs are ready.”
How it Unfolded
The traditional final stage of the Volta Catalunya took place on a city circuit around Barcelona. After 40 kilometres on the flat, six laps of a loop with the second category ascent of Montjuïc at its centre would decide the final stage winner of the race, along with the overall classification.
In a race where the GC thus far had depended on bonus seconds, the final stage looked set to go the same way, with two intermediate sprints prior to the Montjuïc lap effectively making it a race of two halves. The first half was controlled by the GC teams, and Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe dominated the first intermediate sprint, with Roglič taking the full three seconds and his teammate Nico Denz coming through in second place, leaving just one second for Ayuso. This flipped the situation at the top of the leaderboard once again with Roglič taking a one-second lead.
From there, the bunch remained intact and UAE Team Emirates-XRG took control of the pace-setting, with the intention of avoiding a repeat of the first sprint, and Ayuso duly accomplished a complete reversal of fortune, fighting his way through a wall of Red Bull riders to sprint for three seconds at the second sprint, with Roglič back in third.
After that, the floodgates opened, with attacks flying off from the front of the peloton, and the first to establish a sustainable gap was Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost), who enjoyed a spell solo before Bruno Armirail (Decathlon-AG2R-La Mondiale) bridged across to the Ecuadorian in defence of his KOM jersey. Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe were not content to give up on Roglič’s GC campaign however and duly took control of the pace-setting in the peloton, quickly neutralising the attempt of Carapaz and Armirail and snuffing out any hopes of a breakaway victory for the moment.
The following lap, Groupama-FDJ’s Tom Donnenwirth launched a solo attack and was joined by Emanuel Buchmann (Cofidis) to form a new breakaway duo, but once again it was short-lived, as Roglič pushed on himself, with Ayuso struggling to hold his wheel, and over the top of the climb he was able to carve out a solo lead heading into the final 20 kilometres of racing. It left Ayuso stranded without teammates, forced to lead in the chasing group and unable to find the legs to launch a counter-move.
Yesterday’s stage winner Quinn Simmons (Lidl-Trek) was the next to attack from the chasing group, with Simon Yates (Visma-Lease A Bike) for company. The pair were closed down by Lotto, riding for Lennert van Eetvelt and lending a hand to Ayuso as his team sought to regroup. Meanwhile, Roglič consolidated his lead, with more than 20 seconds over the rest of the GC hopefuls until Marc Soler took over the chase and began to eat into Roglič’s advantage.
It was Enric Mas (Movistar) who used Soler’s effort as a launchpad to attack, and he set off in pursuit of Roglič with Axel Laurance (INEOS Grenadiers), Mikel Landa (Soudal-QuickStep) and van Eetvelt, and the quartet tried to close to the lone leader but were eventually tagged by the chase group once again with 10 kilometres to the line.
Roglič’s gap held steady after that, despite the best efforts of Adam Yates to close the gap to no avail, and it was Laurens de Plus (INEOS Grenadiers) and van Eetvelt once again who used the final climb of the race to try and close down the race leader.
The gap dropped below ten seconds briefly, but Roglič held firm, and was able to cross the line solo to seal both the stage and the overall win, after an incredibly close battle throughout the week.
Results
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