Vingegaard nears Tour of Catalonia victory with stage six win

AFP | Berga

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(Spain) Jonas Vingegaard blazed to stage six victory at the Tour of Catalonia on Saturday and tightened his grip on the overall lead.

The race favourite accelerated away from the lead group with just over two kilometres to ride to clinch back-to-back stage triumphs in the Pyrenees mountains.

Danish Visma-Lease a Bike rider Vingegaard, who dominated at Paris-Nice earlier in March, finished 10 seconds ahead of Lenny Martinez and Florian Lipowitz, who finished second and third respectively.

Vingegaard holds a provisional 1 minute 22s lead overall on Martinez, while Lipowitz is third and a further eight seconds behind the two-time Tour de France winner.

The 158-kilometre final mountain stage in the lower Pyrenees, starting in Berga and ending at the Sanctuary of Queralt, looked ripe for another Vingegaard triumph and so it proved.

Double Olympic champion Remco Evenepoel, who had fallen out of overall contention during a disappointing fifth stage, rode powerfully to help Red Bull team-mate Lipowitz.

However, Vingegaard broke clear of the German and Frenchman Martinez of Bahrain Victorious with just over two kilometres remaining, and they could not reel him in after that. “We wanted to go for the stage again today,” said Vingegaard. “I still had legs for an attack and that’s what I did. In that moment I was able to drop the other guys from my wheel,” he continued.

“It was a good day.”

Vingegaard is now wellplaced to win the Tour of Catalonia in his first participation, adding it to a growing resume of high-profile stage races he has won.