The organisers are making a good deal of fuss about the new Alto Mas de la Costa climb, atop which this stage concludes, calling it the race's 'great innovation'. With an average gradient of 13 and max of 21 per cent, its severity outweighs its 4km length and it's sure to blow the GC group to bits after such a hard day.
TOPICS
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'No reason to panic' – Remco Evenepoel drops down Volta a Catalunya standings as Florian Lipowitz closes in on podium
Belgian says 'I've felt worse two days after a fall' as tactics favour his German teammate -
'Today I lost a life for sure' - Tom Pidcock 'OK' after crashing into a ravine in the Volta a Catalunya out of sight of race
'I was far from the road and nobody knew I was there,' says Briton, bolstering UCI case for GPS tracking -
'I gave up, actually, because they were so close' – Mathieu van der Poel made to look human despite completing E3 Saxo Classic hat-trick with 'one of my best efforts'
Dutchman talks through 63km solo win after chasing quartet fumbled the catch in the final kilometres of a dramatic edition -
'It's not up to us' or 'there is no more time to gamble'? How big teams in the peloton failed to chase down Mathieu van der Poel in E3 Saxo Classic
Peloton was at one point only 30 seconds behind solo Dutchman, with numbers for many teams, but directors from Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe and Lidl-Trek disagree on where chasing responsibility lies
