Simon gets another sprint win in Catalunya

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Michael Albasini celebrated a start-to-finish victory in the Volta a Catalunya 2012, winning the race as he had won the opening stage. Julien Simon of Saur-Sojasun took his second stage by winning the mass sprint of the final day in Barcelona.

Simon out-sprinted Francesco Gavazzi (Astana) and Damiano Cunego (Lampre), with stage 4 winner Rigoberto Uran of Sky in fourth.

“I didn't believe until this morning that I would win this race,” Albasini said, according to Biciciclismo.

The closing stage was short but not easy, as it featured three category three climbs and one category one climb. A group of nine riders got away only 6km into the day. Alexsandr Dyachenko (Astana), Gatis Smukulis and Petr Ignatenko (Katusha), Morris Possoni (Lampre), Stef Clement (Rabobank), Javier Ramírez (Andalucía), David De la Fuente and David de la Cruz (Caja Rural) and Nicolas Edet (Cofidis) never had a lead of more than two minutes, and were gathered in with about 40 km to go.

From there, various riders tried to make the break, including Tom Danielson of Garmin and Rabobank's Luis Leon Sanchez. The final descent brought the riders almost directly to the finish line, and over those remaining two kilometers, the group gathered itself for the final mass sprint.

“There was really no moment today when we were under terrible pressure,” said Neil Stephens, director of GreenEdge. “Those moments came earlier in the week. Today, we observed the different objectives of the other teams. When Garmin made their interests known, we let them ride on the front and took a secondary role.

“We knew all we needed to do was get Michael to the final climb. He started the day with a 1:30 lead. Even if he had gotten into a bit of a trouble on the last climb, which he never did, it would have been unlikely for him to lose that much time.”

Albasini stayed with the lead group not only on the climb, but also on the tricky descent. “I had Daryl [Impey] with me on the final climb,” explained Albasini. “He has been by my side throughout the entire week. Each of my teammates did everything we asked them to do. They rode an incredible race, and I’m happy to pay them back by finishing off the job with the win.”

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