Volta a Catalunya: Jonas Vingegaard dominates stage 5 mountaintop finish to Coll de Pal for solo victory

Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) continued his storming start to the season, taking control of the Volta a Catalunya with a dominant solo victory atop the Coll de Pal on stage 5 on Friday.

This was only the first summit finish of the race after the removal of the previous day’s climb to Vallter 2000, and the persisting high winds even forced the organisers to chop 2.2km off the top of this one, but it still left 17km of the brutal mountain for Vingegaard to flex his muscles.

The Dane, who won Paris-Nice earlier this month, started to make his move just under 7km from the top and was alone just under 6km from the top. He gained time on everyone else with every pedal stroke as he rose into the snow-capped peaks, finishing more than a minute clear.

Felix Gall (Decathlon CMA CGM) kicked clear of a four-man chase group to finish second on the stage, 50 seconds down on Vingegaard but 10 seconds clear of Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious), Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) and Valentin Paret-Peintre (Soudal-QuickStep).

Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) suffered a huge blow to his hopes of overall success. The Belgian, who crashed heavily two days ago, was unable to live with Vingegaard and was dropped early before finding frustration in what was the third group on the road, which he led home for sixth place, some 1:37 down on Vingegaard.

Previously second-placed Tom Pidcock (Pinarello Q36.5) was dropped at the bottom of the final climb, having reportedly crashed on the descent, while João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) lost almost two minutes in the end. The damage was worse for Ineos Grenadiers, who predictably lost the leader’s jersey on Dorian Godon’s shoulders but also saw Oscar Onley finish 2:27 down, with Carlos Rodriguez dropped even early on the climb.

Vingegaard moves into the overall lead of the race with, bonus seconds being taken into account, a 57-second lead on GC over Gall, with Martinez third at 1:09, Lipowitz fourth at 1:13, and Paret-Peintre fifth at 1:15. Evenepoel, who had enjoyed an attacking start to the race, now finds himself 1:38 down and with an uphill struggle just to make the podium never mind the top step of it.

In the group with Evenepoel and rounding out the new top 10 on GC were: Ben O’Connor (Jayco-AlUla), Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek), Cian UIjtdebroeks (Movistar), and Lorenzo Fortunato (XDS Astana), all at 1:51 down.

The final climb drama

The race had already exploded on the final climb of the Coll de Pal, cut to 16.7km long at an average gradient of 6.7%, before Vingegaard made his move, but when he went, it was decisive.

Gall, Lipowitz, and Martinez had already attacked before Vingegaard set off, so they had stolen a march 10km from the top, but they weren’t able to hang on for long when the Dane made his way across with just over 6km to go. The Dane was not quite alone as he came across, with Paret-Peintre putting in a remarkable ride to be the last rider able to cling to the wheel.

Behind, Pidcock, Rodriguez, Almeida and Carapaz were among the big names dropping from the thinning bunch before Vingegaard opened the taps 6.8km from the summit. When he did, Evenepoel was initially alive to it, but 500 metres later he, and everyone apart from Paret-Peintre, was gone.

Lipowitz then assumed leader status for Red Bull, launching attacks in what turned out to be the main chase group with Gall, Martinez, and Paret-Peintre. That left Evenepoel in a bind. The Belgian initially looked to minimise the damage but then began to call for contribution from others in the group, namely Skjelmose, UIjtdebroeks, O’Connor, and Fortunato.

Pointing to the presence of his teammate Lipowitz up the road, Evenepoel preferred to let the group lose momentum rather than have to shoulder the whole burden himself.

Gall was calling for cooperation in the first chase group, too, as Lipowitz launched repeated digs, and the Austrian rider decided to attack himself and go it alone in the final kilometre, taking a strong second place.

But the day belonged to Vingegaard, who was firmly in the driving seat ahead of another, albeit less stringent, summit finish at Queralt on Saturday and the Barcelona circuit finale on Sunday.

How it unfolded

It was a chaotic start to the day as, for the second stage in a row, the organisers announced an alteration to the race route. The winds were still high and the finish line was moved 2.2km down from the planned summit finish at La Molina. That made things slightly easier but there was still 17km of mountain left for the stage’s final showdown.

There was a similar chaotic start to the race itself, with a huge fight for the breakaway. Several hopefuls attempted to get up the road on the flat opening section but the race ignited on the early climb of the Port Colldarnat (15.3km long at 5%). As riders jumped to the break and the peloton split, the race was in pieces, and several bigger names sensed an opportunity to get up the road.

Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) was the chief aggressor, and he had company from the likes of Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), and Sepp Kuss (Visma-Lease a Bike) in a super strong group of 20 that formed further up the climb.

Though strong, that number was unruly, and Ciccone soon looked to break it up, going clear with Soler, and Junior Lecerf (Soudal-QuickStep), before Einer Rubio (Movistar) and Davide Piganzoli (Visma-Lease a Bike) jumped across to form a breakaway of five that would remain out front for most of the day. Ciccone was four minutes down on GC but Soler and Piganzoli were still well in the mix just 26 seconds behind Godon.

After a quick descent it was a long drag up towards the day’s second climb, the Coll de Josa (4.7km at 5%), where Ciccone once again beat Soler to the points as the breakaway took their lead out towards the two-minute mark. Behind Ineos Grenadiers and Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe were controlling the peloton.

The mid-point of the stage took the riders towards the category 1 Coll de Fumanya (6.7km at 7%), which didn’t see much action beyond Lecerf being dropped from the breakaway. The next climb, the category 1 Collada de Sobirana (7.1km at 6.5%) came soon after, with another breakaway casualty in Rubio, leaving three out front. Ciccone grabbed maximum points again atop both climbs to move to just four points behind classification leader Baptiste Veistroffer (Lotto-Intermarche).

Ciccone used his speed atop the Sobirana to clip away on the treacherous descent, but he was soon rejoined by Soler and Piganzoli, though Red Bull had significantly raised the pace and, with 30km to go, the gap was down to 1:10. At the intermediate sprint in Baga, Ciccone sprinted off and turned it into an attack, going clear to lead solo onto the final climb of the Coll de Pal, cut to 16.7km long at an average gradient of 6.7%.

At the intermediate sprint in Baga, Ciccone sprinted off and turned it into an attack, going clear to lead solo onto the final climb of the Coll de Pall. He, however, was caught 6km from the top, just as Vingegaard was effectively replacing him as the lone leader and, ultimately, the winner.

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