Volta Ciclista a Catalunya King of the Mountains Stef Clement (Belkin) clinched his first win in three years after the former Dutch national time trial champion charged away from a break of nine close to the stage six finish in Vilanova i la Geltrú.

On a classic transition stage where the favourites opted to ease back and keep their powder dry for Sunday's far more difficult finale in Barcelona's Montjuic Park, when a solid breakaway of nine riders - widely reckoned to be the ideal number for a long-distance move - formed early on, it was always likely that the break, containing no GC threats, would stick.

And so it proved, with the powerful tailwinds throughout the stage assisting the nine - Pieter Serry (Omega Pharma-Quick Step), King of the Mountains leader Clement, Damien Howson (Orica-GreenEdge), Pierre Rolland (Europcar), former Volta a Catalunya stage winner Jens Voigt (Trek Factory Racing), Antonio Piedra (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA), Marek Rutkiewicz (CCC Polsat Polkowice), Rudy Molard (Cofiids) and Nico Sijmens (Wanty Group-Goubert) - to build up a lead of a little over four minutes as they headed inland to the hills surrounding the one classified climb of the day, the third category Alt de Font-Rubi.

The pack took their time to reorganise the pursuit on the long, winding descents to the finish line in the coastal resort of Vilanova i la Geltru. With a margin of 1:40 for the nine at 12 kilometres to go, it seemed all but certain that the main chasing teams of Lampre-Merida and Lotto-Belisol had left their efforts too late.

The nine attacked each other time and time again on the run-in to the finish after Voigt opened up the late moves but was reeled in. Clement timed his effort perfectly, going away with a burst of speed with two kilometres to go. He quickly opened a gap and held off the chasers all the way to the line.

"I thought it was all lost because I had to gamble and I tried to take back the guys who had attacked and spent some energy there," Clement said afterwards. "At one point there were four guys gone [up the road], and I thought ‘ok, somebody has to bring this back' and if they didn't then I would have lost.

"We got them back and then with a little bit more than one kilometre to go there was a little bit of an uphill and I made my last effort of the day. I saw I had a gap and after that I never looked back, but I was afraid to put my hands in the air at the finish."

He was not convinced that the break would stick, saying "you always hope, but then we only got a maximum of four minutes." His interest in keeping the break away in any case was not just for the stage win but also for "maximum points for the mountains jersey on that climb. I got that, and they may make all the difference for keeping the jersey tomorrow."

Behind Clement, Rudy Molard (Cofidis) finished a close second, Pieter Serry (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) was third and Voigt was fourth. Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) and all the other big-name contenders finished safely in the main peloton, 55 seconds behind.

With one short but very tricky stage to go - culminating with eight laps of the hilly Montjuic park circuit - Rodriguez leads Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) by four seconds, with Tejay van Garderen (BMC) third at seven seconds, Nairo Quintana (Movistar) fifth at 10 seconds and Chris Froome (Team Sky) sixth at 17 seconds.