Matthew Brennan (Visma-Lease A Bike) sprinted to his second stage at the Volta a Catalunya from a reduced bunch after crosswinds split the peloton on stage 5.
Brennan displayed his dominance once again in the final sprint in Amposta. Behind him, in the absence of Kaden Groves, Tibor Del Grosso came through in second for Alpecin-Deceuninck. Picnic-PostNL’s Pavel Bittner rounded out the podium in third.
"We've worked all day, and we knew this would be a little bit hectic coming into the final," Brennan said after the stage. "I think the whole team was there, and we pressed on and really managed our effort. We came into the finish in a good position. And I'm so happy that I could finish off for them.
"It's really nice that Stevie [Kruijswijk] was working for me all day. That gives you that extra bit of motivation to really want to finish it off strong. I think the fact that all the guys were really motivated to get to the finish for GC as well.
"I think we all did such a good job. And motivation-wise, it's so nice when your whole team is around you, and there's not many of you left. So I'm really happy with the guys.
"The last two days have been pretty tough, and it's been quite challenging at times. But I think with the sprint, it also gives the team the motivation to go for something a little bit different, as well as the GC days, but it also helps Simon [Yates], Wilco [Kelderman], just stay up front and be there in those hectic moments."
An intermediate sprint subplot during the stage saw Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) retake the leader’s jersey heading into the final weekend, where the GC contenders will once again do battle on a summit finish at Queralt and the traditional closing circuits in Montjuïc Park.
Tirreno-Adriatico champion Ayuso snatched a single bonus second to edge into the lead, just a second ahead of Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) heading into the decisive final weekend of the race. Enric Mas (Movistar) remains third in the overall standings, 21 seconds off the lead and one up on Mikel Landa (Soudal-QuickStep).
How it unfolded
The peloton during stage 5 of the Volta a Catalunya (Image credit: Getty Images)
Beginning in Paüls, just a few kilometres inland from Spain's north-west coast, stage 5 of the Volta Catalunya featured a front-loaded profile, with the lion's share of the day's climbing taking place within the first half of the course.
This set up a stage that would potentially bring the fast men to the fore for a final bunch sprint opportunity of the race, ahead of a decisive final weekend of GC action. At 172km in total, the only categorised climb of the day was tackled after just 35km, but it was the wind conditions that were of primary concern as the day progressed.
It took 10km for the day's early break to detach themselves from the main peloton; the group was composed of seven riders, but they were never given much breathing room by a motivated bunch, with the threat of strong crosswinds ensuring that the pace stayed high throughout the day.
The gap to the front of the race dipped below a minute with 82km remaining on the day, as the race travelled south, parallel to the coast along exposed roads.
The lead group were almost collected by the bunch with more than 60km left and splintered under the pressure, dropping to just two riders, who were allowed to rebuild a small gap, which grew out to over a minute with 50km to go.
The pair – Enzo Paleni (Groupama-FDJ) and Jokin Murguialday (Euskatel-Euskadi) – rode together for a while, before Paleni dropped his breakaway companion to head up the road chasing a solo victory.
The peloton tackles a hill before the carnage on stage 5 (Image credit: Getty Images)
Paleni maintained a gap of around 30 seconds until the second intermediate sprint of the day, where an acceleration in the bunch saw Ayuso and Roglič sprint for the remaining bonus seconds.
The Spaniard snatched a single second, taking the virtual lead in the general classification in the process. With that, Paleni's attack was neutralised and the group was compact with just over 20km remaining to the finish.
From there, the expected crosswinds struck, and with a number of teams driving on at the front of the bunch, the peloton stretched and fractured into several groups, with a reduced group heading onto the lengthy 11km finishing straight with an advantage of around 15 seconds over the remainder of the bunch.
The gap grew, ensuring that the day's winner would come from the front group, and any GC hopefuls caught out in the second group would sustain a serious dent to their challenge.
As the finish line in Amposta approached, Axel Laurance (Ineos Grenadiers) was first to open his sprint, 250 metres from the line, but he was overpowered by a number of other riders, including Brennan, whose ferocious turn of pace was enough for him to win comfortably. He takes the lead in the points competition with two stages remaining.
In the battle for the overall classification, clever riding from Ayuso, who had gone into the day second in the GC but on the same time at Roglič, saw him wrest the leader's jersey and control of the race back from Red-Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe heading into the queen stage tomorrow.
Lennert van Eetvelt (Lotto), Matthew Riccitello (Israel-Premier-Tech) and Juan Pedro Lopez (Lidl-Trek) were among the top GC names caught out in the second group, effectively seeing their tilt at the overall win come to a premature end.
Primož Roglič (right) was among the riders driving the lead split (Image credit: Getty Images)
Katy is a freelance writer and journalist. She has published interviews, features, and previews in Cycling News, Rouleur, Cyclist Magazine and the British Continental. She also writes opinion pieces on her own website writebikerepeat.com and is a frequent contributor to the Quicklink podcast.
She is obsessed with the narrative element of bike racing, from the bigger picture to the individual stories. She is a cyclocross nut who is 5% Belgian and wonders if this entitles her to citizenship. Her favourite races are Ronde van Vlaanderen and La Vuelta.
In her spare time Katy is a published short fiction and non-fiction author.
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