MADRID, March 27 (Xinhua) -- Two-time Tour de France winner, Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) claimed an impressive and possibly decisive win on the fifth stage of the Volta Ciclista a Catalunya (Tour of Catalonia) cycle race on Friday.
The rider who recently started his season with victory in the prestigious Paris-Nice race, showed he is back to his best form with a dominant ride that saw him soar over the last six kilometers of the Coll de Pal, which was the last of five big climbs on the toughest day of another of the important early season stage races.
Vingegaard won the stage by 50 seconds ahead of Felix Gall (Decathlon) and has a lead of 57 seconds over Gall in the overall standings, with Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious) a further 12 seconds behind.
"It was a hard stage, but we had a plan from the morning. At the start I wasn't at my best, but I felt very good on the last climb and my teammates did very well. It was good teamwork," said Vingegaard after the stage, admitting he hadn't expected to hold such a big overall lead.
The main protagonist of the stage was the Italian climber, Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) who got away in a group that also included Vingegaard's team-mate, Davide Piganzoli and Marc Soler (UAE-Team Emirates).
"It was good Davide was in the break because that meant we didn't have to work hard to pull the peloton (in the chase)," explained Vingegaard
Ciccone led by around a minute at the start of the final climb, but the gap began to shrink fast and there were just under seven kilometers left when Vingegaard made his decisive move, taking a small and select group of riders including Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Boar Hansgrohe) behind him.
Ciccone was caught with six kilometers left on the road and with double Olympic champion, Evenepoel struggling to keep pace, Vingegaard attacked again to launch his solo ride to the summit.
Saturday sees another potentially decisive mountain stage of 158 kilometers between Berga and Quiralt. ■
