Volta a Catalunya: Andrea Bagioli sprints for final stage, Sergio Higuita secures overall

Andrea Bagioli (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl) won the explosive final stage of the Volta a Catalunya.

The young Italian sprinted from a small lead group to beat Attila Valter (Groupama FDJ) and Fernando Barceló (Caja Rural) to the line.

Sergio Higuita (Bora-Hansgrohe) defended his overnight GC lead to secure a career-first WorldTour stage-race victory, finishing in the lead group along with closest rivals Richard Carapaz (Ineos Grenadiers) and João Almeida (UAE Emirates).

There was no change in the top-3 after Higuita, Carapaz and Almeida all finished on the same time, with Carapaz and Almeida finish second and third respectively at the end of the seven-day race.

Higuita’s victory makes for a palmarès-topping result alongside his Vuelta a España stage and overall win at Tour Colombia. The Colombian champ transferred to Bora-Hansgrohe this off-season and is slated for Vuelta leadership this summer.

The Barcelona circuit hosting the final of Sunday’s stage typically brings red-hot racing, and that was no different Sunday.

A strong break of 12 had kicked away in the aggressive opening hour of the race and nursed a tentative one-minute advantage heading into the explosive six-lap circuit.

Steven Kruijswijk (Jumbo-Visma) was active from the start and blasted out of the escape with Quentin Pacher (Groupama-FDJ) at around 45km to go.

Uno-X had been active controlling the break through the start of the stage as it looked to keep its two leaders positioned in the top-10, but it was UAE Emirates that kick-started the decisive action on the second lap.

The surging pace saw several groups attack out of the bunch and eventually Joe Dombrowski (Astana Qazaqstan), Simon Clarke (Israel Premier Tech), Dries Devenyns (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl) and Oier Lazkano (Movistar) came together in a mission to chase the two leaders.

After starting the stage just 16-seconds back on Higuita, Carapaz had to make a move to try to crack his South American rival.

Ineos Grenadiers rocketed the pace in the reduced peloton on the third lap,  and the chasers were soon swallowed up before Kruijswik and Pacher were eventually caught at just 13km to go.

Carapaz’s quest for the GC continued when he kicked hard on the penultimate climb, with Tobias Johannessen (Uno X) also surging. The accelerations split the front of the race to just 25 riders, with all the top names still in contention and leaving the race hanging in the balance.

The final throwdown came on the final climb as Almeida tried to pull back the time on Carapaz he needed to vault up to second on GC.

The Portuguese star attacked with teammate Juan Ayuso over the top of the steep climb. Higuita, Johannessen and Ben O’Connor (Ag2r-Citroen) marked, with Carapaz making a rapid descent to catch on ahead of the extra fast downward-pointing tilting final 3km.

The small group of leaders started cat-and-mousing ahead of what looked set to be a six-up sprint, giving time for Bagioli, Valter and a pack of chasers to come surging across with just 1500 meters to go.

Bagioli lit up the sprint, and Guillaume Martin (Cofidis) contested, but the young Italian held strong for the stage victory.

The 23-year-old has been steadily rising the ranks at Quick-Step, lighting up last year’s Vuelta with two podium finishes. He will ride through the Ardennes this spring and will prove a valuable wingman for teammate Remco Evenepoel.

“This win, my first in a WorldTour race, means a lot to me,” he said. “It wasn’t the easiest start to the season, with a couple of setbacks, but I continued to believe in myself and the team supported me all the time. We had a good week here, with the wins brought by myself and Ethan [Vernon], and these results will only feed our confidence for the next races.”