In the stage that promised to determine the winner of this Tour, the cyclists set off from Tortosa for a 176.5 km route that discovered the Terres de l’Ebre with one of the most demanding finishes of this edition. Before that, two peaks, Alt de Boet and Col de Som, both of the 3rd category, which only served as a prolegomena for the last climb of the day to Lo Port, the so-called Tourmalet from the south of Catalonia, with ramps of up to 15% that make it a port with a hardness worthy of the expected show. In the last outing, the winner was Alejandro Valverde, who has given up the bike this season.
Right from the start, his legacy seemed to be one of the favorites in the peloton, who reserved their strength for the tough final climb of the stage. Already in the prologues of the ascent to Lo Port they chased the South African Girmay, the last stronghold of the day’s escape. The lead group was left alone for the final 5km with the Quick-Step team in charge of operations, working for Remco Evenepoel, who was the first to break the harmony between the favourites. The Belgian, together with his shadow of this Tour, Primoz Roglic, and a luxury guest, the Spaniard from the United Arab Emirates Marc Soler, marched straight to the finish, one of the big surprises of the day. He and his partner, Portugal’s Joao Almeida, tried to make it difficult for the top two in the standings, who held off the attacks. As the final meters were reached, Evenepoel attempted to add his second win of the Tour. But Roglic, who had learned from his mistakes in earlier stages, took his registration well. In the final meters he overtook the Belgian, adding his second win. Evenepoel has reached 10 seconds, bonuses included that leave the Slovene of Jumbo Visma in the provisional lead, with the same difference in general. “I’m much better than the days before, I haven’t worked as hard as I did today in a long time. This distance is complicated, especially for the 10 seconds. It’s going to be complicated to deal with,” Roglic said at the end of the stage.
On Saturday, the tour experiences a day for the cyclists to rest their legs, on a path that is more convenient for the sprinters on the train. The stage starts in Martorell and after climbing two passes, the Creu d’Aragall hill (2nd category) and the Fontpineda hill (3rd category), the runners reach the finish line in Molins de Rei. A stage of 183 kilometers that precedes the last day in which cyclists will have to face the already traditional Montjuïc circuit that will finish the 102nd edition of the Volta a Catalunya.
