Volta a Catalunya: Matthews wins stage 6 in Vila-Seca

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Michael Matthews (Team Sunweb) held off the challenge from Phil Bauhaus (Bahrain-Merida) to take stage 6 of the Volta a Catalunya Saturday in Vila-Seca. The Australian was forced to launch an early sprint, and Bauhaus looked to have enough in the tank as he came alongside Matthews. However, the Sunweb rider hung on to take his second win of the race. Daryl Impey (Mitchelton-Scott) came through to take third.

Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana) put in a late attack on the flat finish but was caught inside the final 1,500 meters. The Colombian, however, did retain his overall lead in the race with one stage to go.

In a chaotic finale that saw a number of crashes and even attacks from GC riders, Matthews made use of a strong lead out from his Sunweb teammates on the flat terrain. The attacks from Lopez and Davide Formolo (Bora-Hansgrohe) stretched the peloton to almost breaking point, while Alejandro Valverde and his Movistar team almost splintered the field inside the last 10 kilometers when the race hit a short but crucial crosswind section.

With a number of sprinters already out of the race, it fell on Sunweb and Dimension Data to try and hold the race together, and Matthews was dropped off by his last man inside the final few hundred meters.

The Australian was forced to open his acceleration early and Bauhaus - his former teammate - looked to have the measure of him. Patrick Bevin (CCC Team) was also in the mix but he was unable to challenge as the line approached, and he was forced to settle for fourth. However, Matthews held on to continue his much-improved start to the campaign.

"It's been a great week so far," Matthews said at the finish.

"Two stage wins, a second and a fourth. Unfortunately, yesterday we had a really bad crash with one of my teammates Wilco Kelderman. This one's for him today.

"I'm pretty happy with how it's been so far. Tomorrow in Barcelona is a beautiful stage. I've always watched it on television and always wanted to be a part of it so we'll try and finish it off with another win, but tonight we'll celebrate this one."

How it unfolded

The sixth stage of the race departed without Andre Greipel (Arkéa Samsic) and Kelderman, with the latter set for surgery after suffering a broken collar bone on stage 5. The parcours for stage 6 saw the race return to sea-level, but there would be two categorised climbs before the expected bunch sprint in Vila-Seca.

Geoffrey Bouchard (AG2R La Mondiale), Josef Černy (CCC Team), Mikel Iturria (Euskadi-Murias), Oscar Riesebeek (Roompot-Charles) and Floris De Tier (Jumbo-Visma) jumped clear in the opening hour of racing and their chances of success were relatively high given that there were so few bunch sprinters still in the race. The break built up a lead of around three minutes, with Dimension Data and Bahrain-Merida doing most of the pace-setting on the front of the peloton.

The break was still clear after cresting both the Coll d'Abarca (5.8km at 3.2%) and the Coll d'Alforja (4.4km at 5%) but their lead was down to just 1:18 with 25km remaining in the stage.

There were several falls, the first involving Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) although the British ride made it safely back to the peloton. The break was eventually caught with 12km to go, before a daring attack came from 2009 Tour de France stage winner, Brice Feillu (Arkéa Samsic). The Frenchman created a gap on the main field but he was shut down when Valverde and Movistar attempted to split the peloton inside the final 6km.

Marc Soler was the main protagonist, but Lopez's Astana team responded before the race leader himself took off with just over 2.5km to go. The Colombian quickly caught Formolo, who had attacked a kilometer earlier, but the pair were unable to hold off a charging bunch. Formolo led into the final 1,000m but he was soon swamped with even Lopez, Rafal Majka (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Enric Mas (Deceuninck-QuickStep) taking things up in the sprint.

However, it was Matthews who triumphed to take Sunweb's third win in the past 10 days. After a difficult start to the year, Sunweb have begun to find their stride. There were no changes in the overall standings, with Lopez holding a 14 second lead over Mitchelton-Scott's Adam Yates. The race concludes on Sunday.

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