Volta a Catalunya: Landa cements podium place

Volta a Catalunya: Landa cements podium place

Mikel Landa will enter the final stage of the race in second place, after a solid effort on the queen stage, which took in more than 4000 vertical meters. Running from Berga to Queralt, this 154.7km trek featured five classified climbs, including the lung-bursting Coll de Pradell (14.2km, 7%), which made its debut in a race.

This special-category ascent, whose final four kilometers averaged 11%, was where the race exploded when the team of the overall leader decided to up the tempo, which left only a dozen riders in the lead on the descent. Mikel Landa remained excellently positioned all the time, second or third wheel, as the leading group continued to ride hard in the valley.

Collada de Sant Isidre was the penultimate difficulty of the day, and Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) attacked there. Initially, Landa was the only one capable of following the Slovenian, who accelerated again on the steepest part of the climb, going clear. The experienced Basque made sure of dosing his effort carefully without going deep into the pain cave, riding his own pace on the gruelling gradients and starting the descent 20 seconds down on the sole leader.

Joined by Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) just before the last ascent, Mikel worked well together with the Colombian, keeping a hefty advantage over the chasers, and concluded what was arguably the hardest mountain stage since the start of the season in an impressive third place, which allowed him to extend his buffer over the next rider in the ranking.

“For a moment there, I believed we had a chance of catching Pogacar, but it turned out to be impossible in the valley. Nevertheless, we did a great job behind and I think we can be content with the result. It’s been a very good week for me, which is always excellent for the confidence. We have one more stage here, but I’m already looking forward to the next races”, said Mikel after his third podium in the Soudal Quick-Step jersey.

 

Photo credit: ©David Ramos / Getty Images

Race details

1 Tadej Pogačar
UAE Team Emirates
4:11:53
2 Egan Bernal Gómez
INEOS Grenadiers
0:57
3 Mikel Landa Meana
Soudal Quick-Step
0:57
4 Enric Mas Nicolau
Movistar Team
2:14
5 Chris Harper
Team Jayco AlUla
2:16
6 Antonio Tiberi
Bahrain - Victorious
2:16
7 João Almeida
UAE Team Emirates
2:18
8 Lenny Martinez
Groupama - FDJ
2:18
9 Lorenzo Fortunato
Astana Qazaqstan Team
2:34
10 Aleksandr Vlasov
BORA - hansgrohe
2:38
13 Jan Hirt
Soudal Quick-Step
3:52
21 William Junior Lecerf
Soudal Quick-Step
5:15
53 Mauri Vansevenant
Soudal Quick-Step
14:34
78 James Knox
Soudal Quick-Step
18:02
111 Antoine Huby
Soudal Quick-Step
23:58
DNF Ilan Van Wilder
Soudal Quick-Step
-04:11:53
1 Tadej Pogačar
UAE Team Emirates
25:06:16
2 Mikel Landa Meana
Soudal Quick-Step
3:31
3 Egan Bernal Gómez
INEOS Grenadiers
4:53
4 Aleksandr Vlasov
BORA - hansgrohe
5:46
5 Enric Mas Nicolau
Movistar Team
5:51
6 Chris Harper
Team Jayco AlUla
5:51
7 Lenny Martinez
Groupama - FDJ
5:52
8 Antonio Tiberi
Bahrain - Victorious
6:23
9 João Almeida
UAE Team Emirates
6:23
10 Lorenzo Fortunato
Astana Qazaqstan Team
7:17
22 Jan Hirt
Soudal Quick-Step
13:23
34 William Junior Lecerf
Soudal Quick-Step
23:49
61 Mauri Vansevenant
Soudal Quick-Step
44:55
67 James Knox
Soudal Quick-Step
49:31
118 Antoine Huby
Soudal Quick-Step
1:19:51
1 Tadej Pogačar
UAE Team Emirates
41 pt
2 Mikel Landa Meana
Soudal Quick-Step
18 pt
3 Nick Schultz
Israel - Premier Tech
10 pt
4 Axel Laurance
Alpecin - Deceuninck
10 pt
5 Egan Bernal Gómez
INEOS Grenadiers
10 pt
6 Aleksandr Vlasov
BORA - hansgrohe
7 pt
7 Antonio Tiberi
Bahrain - Victorious
7 pt
8 Hugh Carthy
EF Education - EasyPost
6 pt
9 Thomas De Gendt
Lotto Dstny
6 pt
10 Xabier Isasa Larrañaga
Euskaltel - Euskadi
6 pt
28 Mauri Vansevenant
Soudal Quick-Step
1 pt
1 Tadej Pogačar
UAE Team Emirates
95 pt
2 Mikel Landa Meana
Soudal Quick-Step
70 pt
3 Harold Tejada Canacue
Astana Qazaqstan Team
37 pt
4 Marc Soler Giménez
UAE Team Emirates
31 pt
5 Aleksandr Vlasov
BORA - hansgrohe
27 pt
6 Egan Bernal Gómez
INEOS Grenadiers
24 pt
7 João Almeida
UAE Team Emirates
24 pt
8 Attila Valter
Team Visma | Lease a Bike
21 pt
9 Steven Kruijswijk
Team Visma | Lease a Bike
20 pt
10 Antonio Tiberi
Bahrain - Victorious
19 pt
27 Mauri Vansevenant
Soudal Quick-Step
4 pt
1 Lenny Martinez
Groupama - FDJ
25:12:08
2 Antonio Tiberi
Bahrain - Victorious
0:31
3 Cian Uijtdebroeks
Team Visma | Lease a Bike
4:41
4 Johannes Kulset
Uno-X Mobility
8:21
5 Pablo Castrillo Zapater
Equipo Kern Pharma
11:09
6 Valentin Paret-Peintre
Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team
11:34
7 Darren Rafferty
EF Education - EasyPost
17:04
8 William Junior Lecerf
Soudal Quick-Step
17:57
9 Georg Steinhauser
EF Education - EasyPost
31:35
10 Edoardo Zambanini
Bahrain - Victorious
39:42
20 Antoine Huby
Soudal Quick-Step
1:13:59
1 Bahrain - Victorious 75:46:04
2 INEOS Grenadiers 1:17
3 Movistar Team 2:08
4 Soudal Quick-Step 6:51
5 EF Education - EasyPost 15:16
6 UAE Team Emirates 15:44
7 Team Visma | Lease a Bike 16:34
8 Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team 20:59
9 BORA - hansgrohe 28:19
10 Israel - Premier Tech 29:26

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