As is tradition, the Catalan stage race came to a close in Barcelona, where the peloton had to cross the Montjuïc lap six times on a 138.6km circuit before the overall winner was crowned. Sergio Higuita entered the race 16 seconds ahead of the runner-up in the overall standings and the team went all out today to defend the leader’s jersey. In the decisive last lap, attacks came thick and fast, but Sergio remained alert to all the moves and was able to counter important attacks. In the end, the Colombian road champion sprinted to ninth place from a small leading group and with that took the victory in the overall classification. This is his first GC victory in a WorldTour stage race. At the end of a successful week in Catalunya, BORA – hansgrohe also takes home the young rider and mountain classifications with Sergio.
Result: Stage 7
01 A. Bagioli 3:18:09
02 A. Valter +0:00
03 F. Barcelo +0:00
09 S. Higuita +0:00
Result: General Classification
01 S. Higuita 29:53:33
02 R. Carapaz +0:16
03 J. Almeida +0:52
From the Finish Line
“This win is very special for me because I have never won a WorldTour stage race. I’m of course very happy. I actually didn’t sleep too well the previous night and was a bit tired, but I think the fact that I was leading in the general classification motivated me a lot and that gave me a lot of energy. Today I really raced with my heart. It was a very hard day, but I managed to keep the gap to my competitors. The team did a great job all week and it’s great to finish this race with the overall win. I was expecting a lot of attacks especially from Ayuso, Almeida, Carapaz and Quintana and the moves came as expected, but the team had things under control. I managed to not let Carapaz, who was very strong, escape and secure the win at the end of the day. A big thanks to the whole team for their support throughout the week here in Catalunya.” – Sergio Higuita
“As I said yesterday, we were confident before today’s stage because we had a very good team here, especially for this course. We distributed the tasks quite clearly. Martin was to control the first flat part of the race and in particular cover the sprint classification to avoid losing time there. Then Jai, Toni and Ben were to take over in the hills, and at the end it was Jai’s role to accompany Sergio into the finale. And I have to say that everyone really went above and beyond today and did a fantastic job, so our plan worked 100%. We also had the option to fight for a stage win according to the motto “attack is the best form of defence.” We were on a good path for a long time. In the end, unfortunately, nothing came of it, because a group with even faster riders came up from behind. But I think we can be very happy with this superb victory from Sergio and we’re looking forward to the Tour of the Basque Country with Sergio, Aleksandr and Emanuel.” – Christian Pömer, Sports Director
