Valverde wins Volta a Catalunya

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Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) underlined his crushing domination of the 2017 Volta a Catalunya this year with a superbly timed sprint to a third stage win on Sunday, this time in a small group finish in the Montjuïc park in Barcelona.

Already victorious this week atop La Molina and the crucial summit finish of Lo Porto, on Sunday's seventh and final stage the Movistar rider chased down a surging late attack by Dan Martin (Quick-Step Floors) with just three kilometres remaining in the last of eight hilly laps in Montjuïc. Valverde then fended off the bunch, crossing the line just half a bike length ahead of Jarlinson Pantano (Trek-Segafredo) to take his seventh career Volta stage win and to wrap up his second career overall title in Catalunya.

In the closing stage of the Volta on the traditional series of 6.6 kilometre laps around the Montjuïc park that always concludes the event, Valverde and Martin held off the front group of around 15 riders by a handful of seconds on the fast descent to the finish.

But with barely 50 metres to the line, a last ditch acceleration by the mini-peloton all but brought the front group back together again – at which point Valverde put in his own final dash for the line, narrowly besting the pursuit. Pantano crossed the line hammering the bars in frustration at such a close near-miss, with Arthur Vichot (FDJ) in third and the rest of the top GC contenders just behind and all holding onto their respective positions overall.

"The good weather today and hard work from the team meant we keep the day's break at the margin we wanted," said Valverde, whose consistency is such that his worst finish all week has been a 14th place in the opening sprint stage. "And then the other teams helped us pull them back in."

"I knew that Martin would attack at that point in the finishing circuit because he always does, I really had to work hard to get across. We only half-collaborated, so we started the sprint a lot slower than the bunch that was coming up behind. I finally won, but it was by the skin of my teeth."

How it unfolded

The final stage began with a peloton slashed by a third in size to just 114 riders. No fewer than 46 riders finished outside the time limit on Saturday's mountainous stage, which came on top of seven abandons or non-starters. Amongst those teams most affected were CCC Sprandi Polkowice, who lost five of their eight riders in the Volta on Saturday, and Soul Brasil, who were left with just one rider for the last stage.

A 22-rider break formed almost as soon as the peloton rolled out of the sunlit central Barcelona square where the 135km stage began, picking up an advantage of over three minutes in a fast first hour of racing. On the return leg to the Montjuïc park, half a dozen riders attacked on the flat approach roads through the Barcelona suburbs, and as they crossed the line at Montjuïc the first time, Daniel Teklehaimanot (Team Dimension Data), David Gaudu (FDJ), Thomas De Gendt (Lotto Soudal), Jay McCarthy (Bora-Hansgrohe), Victor Campenaerts (LottoNl-Jumbo) and Xandro Meurisse (Wanty - Groupe Gobert) stayed ahead of the peloton by two and a half minutes.

An acceleration by QuickStep Floors as the final hour's racing approached sheered significant chunks of time off the break, with just 54 seconds worth of daylight between the six ahead and the main bunch with 25 kilometres remaining.

In a fast and furious finale, De Gendt and McCarthy worked well together and managed to find a little extra energy to stay ahead as the peloton gobbled up all barring the two strongest breakers. Sky's Mikel Nieve, perhaps seeking to boost team morale after Saturday's collective defeat, lined the bunch out and the gap shrank even further. Making the most of his team-mate's hard work, Geraint Thomas powered out of the pack, which spelled the end for the two up the road, but the most impressive counter-attack was made by Sky's Chris Froome, nine kilometres from the line.

Resplendent in the red mountains jersey - a competition which Froome sat second overall behind Alejandro Valverde - Froome opened up a gap of 13 seconds at one point. But AG2R La Mondiale and Movistar spurred a ferocious counter-acceleration behind, with Alberto Contador (Trek-Segafredo) never too far from the head of the action too. Froome was reeled in, though his attack allowed him to leave the race – in which he picked up a notable second place in Lo Port Friday prior to losing over 25 minutes Saturday – with his head high.

From there it was Martin and Valverde on the move, and then the push for the line, where Valverde triumphed. His hat trick of stage wins and his outright victory – Movistar's second straight win in Catalunya after Nairo Quintana won last year – have made it clear which team and rider have dominated the race.

On top of Valverde's win, Movistar claimed a third place on GC with Marc Soler, as well as wins in the teams competition, the mountains competition and the young riders classification. The only sour note for the Spanish squad was their penalisation and subsequent loss of the team time trial victory on the opening day, but on Sunday as the final curtain came down on the 2017 the Volta a Catalunya, Valverde and Movistar had far more to celebrate than to regret.

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