Davide Cimolai claimed the penultimate stage of this year’s Volta a Catalunya, after winning a hotly contested sprint finish ahead of Nikias Arndt (Giant-Alpecin) and Tosh Van der Sande in Vilanova i la Geltrú today.
Race Highlights
The initial breakaway group which contained riders such as Ryder Hesjedal (Trek-Segafredo), Esteban Chaves (Orica-GreenEdge), Laurens Ten Dam (Giant-Alpecin), Alex Howes (Cannondale), Axel Domont (Ag2r La Mondiale), Marco Minnaard (Wanty-Groupe Gobert) and Romain Hardy (Cofidis), was eventually whittled down to only include Cameron Meyer (Dimension Data), Bert-Jan Lindeman (LottoNL-Jumbo), Petr Vakoc (Etixx-QuickStep) and Rudy Molard (Cofidis).
However, despite remaining outside the clutches of the peloton of many kilometers, with the exception of Meyer, one-by-one they were all caught during the last kilometer.
Meyer continued to remain out front until the final few hundred meters, where he too was caught by the peloton.
From there, Cimolai started his sprint with around 100 meters remaining, which proved to be enough to fend-off any last challenges in a frantic dash for the line.
Meanwhile, Nairo Quintana (Movistar) finished safely in the peloton, to retained his lead in the overall clarification, seven seconds ahead of Alberto Contador (Tinkoff), followed by Richie Porte (BMC) in third at 17 seconds back.
The Volta a Catalunya concludes tomorrow with a 136 kilometer hilly circuit stage around Barcelona’s Montjuic area.
Stage 6 Results ITA 1 CIMOLAI, Davide (LAMPRE – MERIDA) 4:35:13 GER 2 ARNDT, Nikias (GIANT – ALPECIN) BEL 3 VAN DER SANDE, Tosh (LOTTO SOUDAL) AUS 4 GERRANS, Simon (ORICA GreenEDGE) RSA 5 IMPEY, Daryl (ORICA GreenEDGE) CZE 6 VAKOC, Petr (ETIXX – QUICK STEP) RUS 7 TCATEVICH, Aleksei (KATUSHA) BEL 8 VANGENECHTEN, Jonas (IAM CYCLING) NED 9 LINDEMAN, Bertjan (LOTTO NL – JUMBO) FRA 10 MANZIN, Lorenzo (FDJ)
General Classification after Stage 6 COL 1 QUINTANA ROJAS, Nairo Alexander (MOVISTAR) 23:07:41 ESP 2 CONTADOR VELASCO, Alberto (TINKOFF) + 7 AUS 3 PORTE, Richie (BMC RACING) + 17 IRL 4 MARTIN, Daniel (ETIXX – QUICK STEP) + 18 USA 5 VAN GARDEREN, Tejay (BMC RACING) + 27 FRA 6 BARDET, Romain (AG2R LA MONDIALE) + 31 RUS 7 ZAKARIN, Ilnur (KATUSHA) + 42 GBR 8 FROOME, Christopher (SKY) + 46 GBR 9 CARTHY, Hugh (CAJA RURAL-SEGUROS RGA) + 1:01 COL 10 URAN URAN, Rigoberto (CANNONDALE) + 1:16
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