Poels solos to stage victory in Volta a Catalunya
Wout Poels pulled off a magnificent solo victory on stage five at the Volta a Catalunya with a late attack.
The Dutchman raced aggressively for the second day in succession and was rewarded handsomely with a classy win into Valls, fending off his fellow breakaway members by 11 seconds at the line.
After making multiple attempts to get up the road, Poels finally pushed clear in an 18-strong move, before powering clear with 14 kilometres to go on the Alt de Lilla.
Cresting the climb he held a slender advantage on a chasing group featuring two former team-mates, but just had enough in reserve to get his arms in the air.
Dario Cataldo (Astana) beat home Gaetan Bille (Wanty Groupe Goubert) and Kanstantsin Siutsou (Dimension Data) in the fight for the podium places.
With two days remaining, the race leader saw his advantage trimmed to seven seconds after Alberto Contador (Tinkoff) snagged a bonus second at the intermediate sprint in Ager.
Team Sky began the day with a reduced six-man unit, following the abandonment of Ian Boswell on Thursday and Geraint Thomas not starting the stage, instead choosing to rest up in the days before the Tour of Flanders.
Volta a Catalunya 2016 – stage 5 results (Rialp – Valls):
| 1 | Wouter Poels (Sky) |
3:59:03 |
| 2 | Dario Cataldo (Astana) |
+11” |
| 3 | Gaetan Bille (Wanty – Groupe Gobert) |
,, |
| 4 | Kanstantsin Siutsou (Dimension Data) |
,, |
| 5 | Carlos Verona (Etixx – Quick-Step) |
+13” |
| 6 | Simon Gerrans (Orica-GreenEDGE) |
+33” |
| 7 | Aleksei Tsatevich (Katusha) |
,, |
| 8 | Enrico Gasparotto (Wanty – Groupe Gobert) |
,, |
| 9 | Davide Cimolai (Lampre – Merida) |
,, |
| 10 | Ben Swift (Sky) |
,, |
General classification after stage 5:
| 1 | Nairo Quintana (Movistar) | 23:01:19 |
| 2 | Alberto Contador (Tinkoff) |
+07” |
| 3 | Richie Porte (BMC) |
+17” |
| 4 | Daniel Martin (Etixx – QuickStep) |
+21” |
| 5 | Tejay Van Garderen (BMC Racing Team) |
+27” |
| 6 | Romain Bardet (AG2R) |
+32” |
| 7 | Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha) |
+42” |
| 8 | Christopher Froome (Sky) |
+46” |
| 9 | Hugh Carthy (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) |
+01’01” |
| 10 | Rigoberto Uran (Cannondale) |
+01’16” |
