Tour of Catalonia: Groves wins the 6th stage, Roglic still leader

Australian Kaden Groves won Saturday in a sprint ahead of Bryan Coquard the 6th and penultimate stage of the Tour of Catalonia, 183 km between Martorell and Molins de Rei, Slovenian Primoz Roglic retaining his overall leader’s jersey.

The stage was lively from start to finish. Remco Evenepoel, second in the standings ten seconds behind Roglic, attacked in the difficulty of the day, the Alt de la Creu d’Aragall (2nd category), 27 km from the finish.

But the Slovenian, triple winner of the Tour of Spain, did not concede anything. And when the two men, who are engaged in their only face-to-face in Catalonia before their expected duel in the Tour of Italy (May 6-28), found themselves alone in the lead in the final, Roglic refused to collaborate.

Belgian “The Little Cannibal”, visibly annoyed, then got up 9 km from the finish, allowing the peloton to come back and compete for victory in the sprint.

Groves, the winner of the day, managed a small feat, as he suffered a mechanical incident three kilometers from the finish, and had to stop to borrow a teammate’s bike.

“I wasn’t sure I could come back to the peloton, admitted the 24-year-old sprinter, but I was lucky, I didn’t waste a lot of time changing bikes, a teammate told me brought back and I was able to do my sprint.”

The Colombian Egan Bernal, victim of a fall at the start of the stage, was forced to retire.

On Sunday, the last stage will be in Barcelona with a final on a very rugged circuit around the hill of Montjuïc castle, which the peloton will have to climb six times.

Classification of the 6th stage of the Tour of Catalonia, disputed on Saturday between Martorell and Molins de Rei:

1. Kaden Groves (AUS / ALP) the 183.2 km in 3 h 50:32.

(average: 47.8 km/h)

2. Bryan Coquard (FRA/COF) mt

3. Ide Schelling (NED/BOR) mt

4. Maxim Van Gils (BEL/LOT) mt

5. Remco Evenepoel (BEL/QST) mt

General classification:

1. Primož Roglic (SLO/JUM) 25:00 19:52.

2. Remco Evenepoel (BEL / QST) at 10.

3. João Almeida (POR/UAE) 1:07.

4. Marc Soler (ESP/UAE) 1:54.

5. Mikel Landa (ESP/BAH) 1:55.

./bds/cpb/hpa