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Impey wins tumultuous Stage 6 of Volta a Catalunya

Spanish roads again catch out Sky, Froome and Thomas out of top-20

March 25, 2017
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South African Daryl Impey of Orica-Scott pounced from a reduced peloton that caught a breakaway duo in the last 100-metres to win the sixth stage of the Volta a Catalunya. It was a terrible day for Sky and several other teams who got caught out in the early going. Alejandro Valverde was runner-up and keeps the race lead going into Sunday’s final stage.

Alas, Canadian Cycling Magazine had its gaze focused on the E3 Harelbeke on Friday and missed the fireworks of the Volta a Catalunya’s queen stage. Here’s what happened:

Friday’s Stage
Before the big showdown on Stage 5’s Especial-category summit finish, the top-5 looked like this:
1) Tejay Van Garderen (USA/BMC) 13:29
2) Sammy Sanchez (Spain/BMC) +0:41
3) Geraint Thomas (Great Britain/Sky) +0:44
4) Alejandro Valverde (Spain/Movistar) +0:45
5) Chris Froome (Great Britain/Sky) +0:49

On the slopes of the Especial Lo Port climb, it was Alberto Contador’s main man Jarlinson Pantano who cracked Van Garderen. Thomas was the next to go when Contador put in his own dig. Soon there was only an elite group of Contador, Froome, Valverde, Adam Yates and this race’s revelation, Mark Soler of Movistar. Soler’s surge unhitched Yates and Froome, but Froome came back just as Soler swung off. At the red kite, Valverde attacked, winning by 13-seconds.


The new GC:
1) Valverde 17:44:27
2) Froome +0:21
3) Contador +0:47
4) Soler +1:00
5) Yates +1:15
6) Van Garderen +1:18

Michael Woods’ 12th place performance moved him up to 27th on GC.

A move of great class and significance came from Van Garderen after the stage. Things were getting hot between BMC and Movistar after the American team’s protests had the Spanish squad docked a minute and denied the win in the team time trial, flames that JJ Rojas fanned on Thursday by posting footage on Twitter of Van Garderen taking off his helmet and reminding him about the rules against that. Geraint Thomas summed up the tension.


Van Garderen, who was one of several BMC riders who tweeted complaints and gifs of Movistar’s pushing/touching after the team time trial, defused the situation by posting a congratulations to Valverde and Movistar. Valverde responded with grace.


We good everybody?

Saturday’s Stage
Stage 6 threw a bunch of climbs at the riders over 189.7-km, including the Cat. 1 Alt de la Musara peaking with 39-km to go. After the crest there was a rolling plateau, a long descent and then a slight 3-km rise to the finish line in Reus.


The early intrigue had little to do with the breakaway and who got to the top of the day’s first climb in the lead, but instead involved Chris Froome getting into difficulty. A split formed in the rolling terrain after Cat. 3 Alt de Bot, with Valverde, Contador, Soler, Yates, Van Garderen and around 45 other riders putting Froome, Thomas, Michael Woods and a large chunk of the peloton 2:00 behind them midway through the stage, with another group even further behind.


It wasn’t just Movistar, Trek and BMC doing the work in the lead group. Orica-Scott, Quick Step and LottoNL-Jumbo all toiled to eliminate Froome and Thomas from the top-10. With 80-km to go the gap was an almighty chasm of 5:00; eventually the Froome group capitulated and fell 14:00 behind.

Froome and company dispatched, Valverde now had Contador to watch on Musara. Soler had to worry about protecting his captain, not concern himself with the podium place he had inherited. Musara’s 10.6-km length won it Cat. 1 status, not necessarily its 5.2% average pitch. As expected, Contador attacked with 40-km remaining but Movistar brought him back.

Nobody could get away on the slopes or on the false flat of the plateau. Would a decisive attack come on the snow melt wet descent?


It seemed that the lead group was satisfied with tiptoeing down Musara. Tentative riding created gaps in the long line. But Italians Dario Cataldo (Astana) and Alessandro De Marchi (BMC) bolted with 15-km to go. With 5-km remaining, the duo’s gap was 10-seconds. De Marchi led under the red kite but Cataldo took over. De Marchi opened the sprint with 200-metres remaining. But the peloton had nabbed the escapees and from it Impey rocketed to pass De Marchi on the far right. take the flowers. Valverde was second and De Marchi fifth.

Froome’s group still hadn’t finished when Impey took his flowers. Eventually it would come in over 26:00 down.


Sunday’s finale concludes with eight circuits around Barcelona each with the Cat. 3 Alp de Montjuic.

2017 Volta a Catalunya Stage 6
1) Daryl Impey (South Africa/Orica-Scott) 4:34:14
2) Alejandro Valverde (Spain/Movistar) s.t.
3) Arthur Vichot (France/FDJ) s.t.

2017 Volta a Catalunya GC
1) Alejandro Valverde (Spain/Movistar) 22:18:35
2) Alberto Contador (Spain/Trek-Segafredo) +0:53
3) Mark Soler (Spain/Movistar) +1:06