Catalunya, 28th of March – 2014
Another mountainous and 218 kilometer long stage was in store for the Volta a Catalunya peloton during day 5 of the Catalan race. The big question was if the GC riders wanted to take advantage of the hilly terrain to create havoc in the top of the rankings.
But it wasn’t until the very final climb with 14 kilometers to go, that riders started to jump up the road and Tinkoff-Saxo set the group on fire with numerous attacks chasing the 4 seconds that separate him from the overall lead of the race. But his rivals shut down the gap and in a furious counter-move, Jakob Fuglsang (Astana) dived down the descent towards the finish line while the GC riders were chasing from behind.
5 kilometers to go, the Dane was swept up and the stage was concluded in a bunch sprint where Luka Mezgez (Giant-Shimano) took his third stage win while Tinkoff-Saxo’s Alberto Contador showed some great effort sprinting his way to 6th position:
“Today’s stage revealed that Alberto is very confident. With an attack on the final climb before heading down towards the finish line where he participated in the bunch sprints as well clearly underlines that he’s strong and he’s not afraid of going all in. The rest of the boys did a super job protecting him throughout the stage where we didn’t have to pull at any time. The race ends Sunday and we’ll see what happens tomorrow,” says DS, Philippe Mauduit.
