As the most active rider of Team KATUSHA this week in Catalunya, Alexey Tsatevich finally found his luck on Sunday. After a number of Top-10 placements, today Tsatevich won his first ever WorldTour race, taking a nice win at the final stage of the Volta Ciclista a Catalunya.
KATUSHA’s rider put himself in the daily breakaway, which was able to stay in front until the finish line. With two laps to go in a Montjuïc circuit Alexey Tsatevich attacked from the break together with Primož Roglič from Team LottoNL-Jumbo. The two riders were able to get 20 seconds advantage, enough to play for the stage victory. In the final sprint Tsatevich was the fastest, bringing KATUSHA a very nice victory.
– During this week I was so close to a podium place. I really wanted to get a good result, because I felt I am strong. I just missed something. Today I was super motivated. I knew my wife Christina would come to the finish for the first time to see me in a WorldTour race, so I wanted to give a nice present to her. The entire day I felt good in the break – I did not follow every attack, I just stayed calm and tried to save my energy for the final laps. This tactic worked well, so with two laps to go I saw my chance to attack and I went away with a LottoNL-Jumbo rider. But at the same time I knew Joaquim Rodriguez was 20 seconds behind and I was ready to help him in case he joined us. In the final, I gave my best on the climb and in the sprint. I have such a great feeling now; I am really happy with this victory. And I am especially happy I was able to surprise my wife, – said Alexey Tsatevich, who brought the 7th victory to Team KATUSHA in the 2016 season.
Stage 7 of the Volta a Catalunya was held in Barcelona – the riders passed 136,4 km around the city with 8 local laps on the famous Montjuïc circuit. A group of 12 riders with Alexey Tsatevich among them went away soon after the start of the race. Despite a number of attacks from the peloton, the break of Tsatevich and Roglič could stay away until the finish line. Colombian rider Jarlinson Pantano of IAM Cycling finished 3rd at 14 seconds behind the Team KATUSHA rider.
Behind the escapers there was a real war among the GC contenders at every pass of the Montjuïc climb. Joaquim Rodriguez and Ilnur Zakarin were among the most active riders, but in the end no one could get enough space to go away for a long time and all favorites finished together. Nairo Quintana from Movistar became the final winner of the race with Alberto Contador of Tinkoff (+0.07) and Daniel Martin of Etixx – Quick Step (+0.17) with him on the podium. KATUSHA’s Ilnur Zakarin finished 7th in the overall classification(+0.42), giving another strong performance after 4th place in the Paris – Nice earlier in March.
Joaquim Rodriguez became the best Catalan rider of the race.
