Valverde’s third “Volta” concludes with a victory by Simon Yates
March 25 th 2018 - 09:44
Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) won the 7th and final stage of the 98th edition of the "Volta" a Catalunya which took riders along a 154.8 kilometre course starting on Avenida Maria Cristina in Barcelona, between the Venetian towers, and finishing with the traditional 8 laps of the Montjuïc circuit. The British cyclist pulled away solo in the last ascent of Barcelona’s magical mountain to clinch the stage victory. Meanwhile, Alejandro Valverde (Movistar Team) secured the overall win, the third "Volta" trophy he will be taking home.
On the Montjuïc climbs, the Murcia rider battled with Egan Bernal (Team Sky), over whom he had an 18 second lead in the general classification after scraping a couple of seconds in the stage’s intermediate sprints. The young Colombian rider had a heavy crash in the last descent which forced him to pull out of the race and cede his place on the podium to Nairo Quintana (Movistar Team), who finished second with the French rider Pierre-Roger Latour (Ag2r La Mondiale) completing the podium, managing to secure it thanks to the bonus points gained for finishing third in today’s stage under the threat of today’s stage winner, Yates, with whom he finished level on time.
The last stage of the “Volta” was a very nervous one, even before entering the Montjuïc circuit; over 80 kilometres were fought around the Baix Llobregat area, in the Ullastrell and Corbera climbs, second and third category climbs respectively, in which no group managed to accumulate more than a 30 second gap. In Montjuïc, Marc Soler (Movistar Team) was relentless, and finished second in today’s stage, while Matej Mohoric (Bahrein-Merida) and Daryl Impey (Mitchelton-Scott) wanted to use their speed to get a win today and add to last year’s win, making the traditional final stage very selective.
After all, Alejandro Valverde (Movistar Team) managed to secure his third “Volta”, following previous triumphs in 2009 and 2017; a figure that stands out in historical terms. “Now I’m on an equal footing with the great Miguel (Indurain). From now on, virtually all my victories will be to beat records. When I was young, I never thought I’d become such a rider”, said the 2018 overall race winner, who felt very “comfortable” in the Catalan race. “It’s a beautiful race, with stunning routes, the organisation is really good, and I love Catalunya. When you feel at ease in a race, you try to repeat it; and when things turn out that well, all the better”, concluded the champion.
As for Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott), he was disappointed about not making it to the podium, although he clinched an unexpected stage win: “We’ve battled every day to try and make it to the podium, and in the end it wasn’t possible. Pierre (Latour) is a great rider and a great guy, so that’s okay. We were in the lead with Daryl Impey, who did a great job; eventually I managed to pull away from Marc Soler, which wasn’t easy. I tried everything, and in the end I won it in the hardest part of the climb. I wasn’t confident enough to get to the finish line with the fast guys, I’m not a sprinter, so I knew I had to give it a shot from a distance. My legs were strong enough in the end”, concluded the British rider.