Volta a Catalunya: Peter Sagan wins stage 6

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Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) claimed his first win of the season in a bunch sprint at the Volta a Catalunya. The Slovak was comfortably the quickest in the sprint, beating Daryl Impey (Israel Start-Up Nation) and Juan Sebastian Molano (UAE Team Emirates) into second and third. 

Despite appearing to be a stage suited to breakaway riders, there were enough teams in the peloton willing to work to ensure the five-man group that escaped at the start of the stage did not succeed.

There being several more attacks after the break was caught, the bunch still remained in attack for a sprint finish at the end.

On paper, Sagan was the quickest of the sprinters, and he used his notorious bike-handling skills to put himself in a position to win. Having launched his sprint, he squeezed in between Max Kanter (DSM) and Reinardt Janse Van Rensburg (Qhubeka Assos) in the middle of the road to give himself a clear run-in to the line, from which position he out-paced Impey to his left to take the win.

It was more evidence, following his impressive ride at Milan-San Remo, Sagan is back on form following his positive Covid-19 test earlier this year.

“I feel great, thank you,” he confirmed at the finish.

“We planned to control the race from the start, and I have to say thanks to all my teammates. They controlled the race from the start until the end. It was a very fast and great race today.

“It was pretty hard from the start, after Tirreno-Adriatico and Milan-San Remo without a longer break. I’m a little bit tired now. But I’m very happy for this victory. It’s a good start to the season, especially for what happened in the last two months. It was not easy, but now it looks nice.”

How it unfolded

A favourable tailwind allowed the riders to set off at a fair lick as they headed northwards from Tarragona to Mataro, averaging over 45km per hour at the beginning despite rolling terrain.

Ruben Fernandez and Jose Herrada (both Cofidis) were non-starters, while Giulio Ciccone (Trek-Segafredo), who was sixteenth overall, abandoned during the stage.

Harold Tejada (Astana-Premier Tech), Dmitrii Strakhov (Gazprom-RusVelo), Matej Mohoric (Bahrain Victorious), Matthias Skjelmose Jensen (Trek-Segafredo) and Antoine Duchesne (Groupama-FDJ) broke clear at the start of the stage, and will have fancied their chances of making it to the finish.

However, despite the kind of rolling terrain that appeared to favour the break, there was a coordinated effort in the peloton to bring them back, with multiple different teams all contributing to the chase. Even Chris Froome did several turns at the front of the bunch for Israel Start-Up Nation.

The break’s gap only managed to exceed just over four minutes, before starting to come down. 

By the time they arrived at Montmelo at 40km to go, where the riders did a lap of the Barcelona-Catalunya motorsport circuit, the gap dipped to below one minute for the first time.

Cautious of making the catch too early, the peloton knocked off the pace, which prompted Tomasz Marczynski (Lotto Soudal) to try an attack 24.5km from the finish. He was unsuccessful, but the increase in pace did bring the break to within 30 seconds.

With the catch imminent, Strakhov attacked the rest of the break, who were soon swallowed up by the bunch. The Russian lasted until the 18km point before himself being caught. 

By now the bunch were tearing along as the day’s final climb, the category 3 Alt El Collet, approached, with Movistar setting the pace.

On the climb, James Knox (Deceuninck-QuickStep) attacked, followed by Marc Soler (Movistar), Wout Poels (Bahrain-Victorious) and a Qhubeka Assos rider. When they were reeled in, Elie Gesbert (Arkea-Samsic) countered, and was the first to reach the top, but only opened a gap of a couple of seconds, and was caught.

That wasn’t the end of the attacks, as Remi Cavagna (Deceuninck-QuickStep) launched out of the peloton on the descent. Aware of the danger posed by the time trial specialist, who had already been out on the attack yesterday, the likes of Bora-Hansgrohe and UAE Team Emirates made a big effort to bring him back and managed to make the 8.5km from the finish. 

Another Deceuninck-QuickStep rider, Josef Cerny, immediately attempted to counter, but the bunch had everything in control.

The sprinters’ teams formed into trains as the finish approached, but it was Ineos Grenadiers who led the peloton right up until the 1km to go banner, keeping overall leader Adam Yates safe.

Deceuninck-QuickStep then took over, but the pace was slow, allowing Juan Jose Lobato (Euskaltel-Euskadi) to try to go long. The Belgian team were able to shut it down with 300m to go, however, setting up the sprint which Sagan won.

The race will conclude tomorrow with a short but intense stage in Barcelona, where Ineos Grenadiers will attempt to retain their current dominance of all three podium positions on GC.