Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) won his third title at the Volta a Catalunya that concluded with stage 7 on Sunday in Barcelona. Movistar showed their strength as Nairo Quintana took second overall 29 seconds back, while Pierre Latour (AG2R La Mondiale) finished third 47 seconds back.
The Volta a Catalunya followed Paris-Nice and Tirreno-Adriatico in the WorldTour stage race calendar, and while the Classics men ply their trade in Belgium, the climbers were in their element in the mountains of Spain.
This year's race scraped the team time trial, which last year helped propel Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) to the overall victory.
This year's course was to include back-to-back summit finishes, the first at Vallter 2000 for stage 3, however, that final was cancelled due to risk of avalanches. The second summit was to La Molina on stage 4. Organisers had to shorten stage 6, also due to the snowy conditions.
2018 Volta a Catalunya - Brief Results
| # | Rider Name (Country) Team | Result |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alejandro Valverde (Spa) Movistar Team | 28:25:07 |
| 2 | Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar Team | 0:00:29 |
| 3 | Pierre Latour (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale | 0:00:47 |
| 4 | Simon Yates (GBr) Mitchelton-Scott | Row 3 - Cell 2 |
| 5 | Marc Soler (Spa) Movistar Team | 0:01:10 |
| 6 | George Bennett (NZl) LottoNL-Jumbo | 0:01:23 |
| 7 | Daniel Martinez (Col) EF Education First-Drapac p/b Cannondale | 0:01:29 |
| 8 | Steven Kruijswijk (Ned) LottoNL-Jumbo | 0:01:31 |
| 9 | Jesper Hansen (Den) Astana Pro Team | Row 8 - Cell 2 |
| 10 | Thibaut Pinot (Fra) Groupama-FDJ | 0:01:34 |
