Volta a Catalunya: Schachmann wins stage 5

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Max Schachmann (Bora-Hansgrohe) took a thrilling solo victory at stage 5 at the Volta a Catalunya. The German was part of the day's four-rider breakaway but made his winning-attack 10km from the finish line in Sant Cugat del Vallès. He crossed the line with the win and with 13 seconds to spare over the bunch sprint won by runner-up Michael Matthews (Sunweb) and third-placed Ryan Gibbons (Dimension Data).

"I've shown in the last days that I'm in great shape," Schachmann said in a post-race flash interview. "I've tried to get a victory here; in the first stage I was second, and yesterday I felt good, and so today I said 'if I have the legs, I will try and just go.'

"In the last 40km, I felt great and took over the major work in the group. Over the last climb, the group didn't work very well, and so I attacked. I think I did one of my biggest rides here."

A crash in the main field put a slight hamper on the organisation in the chase, while also taking down one of Matthews' teammates, Wilco Kelderman.

It looked as though they might bring back Schachmann, but he held steady out front over the final two small inclines and maintained a slight lead that Sunweb ultimately couldn't shut down.

The overall contenders arrived safely in the main field, apart from Egan Bernal (Team Sky), who had a flat tire in the final 200 metres and walked his bike across the line.

Miguel Angel López (Astana) leads the overall classification by 14 seconds over Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) and an additional three seconds to Bernal. The race heads into stage 6 on Saturday with a hilly 169km from Valls to Villa Seca.

How it unfolded

Stage 5 of the Volta a Catalunya was 188km from Puigcerdà to Sant Cugat del Vallès near Barcelona – from high to low – with the peloton climbing out of Puigcerda over the category 1 Port de la Collada de Toses (20.5km at 3.1 per cent). After that, and except for a category 3 climb over Port del Collet de Sant Agusti (4km at 4 per cent), it was undulating downhill, with a couple of small hills, on the way to the finish.

Bert-Jan Lindeman (Jumbo-Visma) led over the top of the Collada de Toses, followed by Tejay van Garderen (EF Education First), Andrey Amador (Movistar) and stage 1 winner Thomas De Gendt (Lotto-Soudal).

A shake-up at the front end, however, saw Max Schachmann (Bora-Hansgrohe) and van Garderen clear the field with Lindeman and Amador trying to bridge. The four riders connected on the descent and pushed their lead out to three minutes.

Schachmann was the best-placed on GC, 3:52 down on stage 4 winner and overall leader López.

Amador led the breakaway over the second climb of the day; Port del Collet de Sant Agusti, that peaked at 80km into the stage. On the descent, Schachmann picked up full points in the first intermediate sprint in Perafita.

Coming down one of the lengthier descents of the day, Andre Greipel's team Arkea-Samsic and Michael Matthews' Sunweb team were the pacesetters, stringing out the main field, but that effort only managed to bring the gap to the leading quartet down to two and half minutes with 40km to go.

Approaching Sant Cugat del Vallès, the peloton snaked its way through the outer-city streets, and in and out of roundabouts as the teams with primary sprinters set up for the final, with Bahrain-Merida joining in the chase. Even with 12km out, the breakaway still held a one minute gap with Schachmann, van Garderen, Lindeman and Amador not letting up in their pursuit of a stage victory.

As they stopped cooperating, Schachmann attacked with 10km to go and opened an instant lead. Lindemann struggled to close down the gap and couldn't reconnect with the German rider.

Schachmann pushed over one final climb before the route dipped back down into Sant Cugat del Vallès. His lead dropped to 40 seconds, but the stage win was not yet out of the realm of possibility for him.

He tried a similar move on stage 1, and finished second behind winner De Gendt, but ahead of the bunch sprint. And he was fourth on stage 2.

On the descent, he pedalled fast, almost spinning out, while tucked down onto the top tube of his bike. At times, his tongue hanging out of his mouth and a grimace on his face from the significant effort, but racing smoothly through every tight corner.

He gained 10 seconds through the city streets, when a crash at the front of the main field took down Kelderman and caused a blockage of the peloton through that corner.

He raced over the top of the last small pitch with just over a kilometre from the line, and then under the flamme rouge with an 18-second lead, and that was all he needed to secure the stage win.

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