The dominator of the Tour of Catalonia has also won the finale in Barcelona. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) won the 7th and final stage over 145 kilometres in the sprint of a larger group and thus naturally also defended his lead in the overall standings. The Slovenian has a lead of more than three and a half minutes over Mikel Landa (Soudal - Quick Step), who, like all the other top 10 riders, finished at the same time as Pogacar.
The 25-year-old, who took all the classification jerseys apart from the junior classification, which was won by Lenny Martinez (Groupama-FDJ), had the best timing in the final, beating Dorian Godon (Decathlon - AG2R La Mondiale) and Guillaume Martin (Cofidis). "I'm happy to have won here, but that wasn't actually the plan," said Pogacar in the winner's interview. "We were actually riding for Marc (Soler) today."
Pogacar celebrates 69th career victory and is ready for the Giro
The Spaniard had broken away from the peloton at the start of the six final laps through Barcelona and set off in pursuit of the breakaway riders around Georg Steinhauser (EF Education EasyPost), but was never able to catch the German as the last remaining rider in the group. Instead, a large group went into the final lap, on which several riders tried but were unable to bring about a decision.
Among them was Pogacar's helper Joao Almeida. "He put in a good attack on the last small climb. I had hoped that he would make it, but when we caught up with him again, I tried to finish it off." With success. Pogacar's fourth stage win in his first appearance in Catalonia was the 69th of his career and a further sign of the Slovenian's strong form, who now only wants to ride Liège-Bastogne-Liège before travelling to the Giro d'Italia.
The top 10 of stage 7 of the Tour of Catalonia
- Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) 3:15:23
- Dorian Godon (Decathlon - AG2R La Mondiale) +0:00
- Guillaume Martin (Cofidis) +0:00
- Stephen Williams (Israel-Premier Tech) +0:00
- Patrick Konrad (Lidl-Trek) +0:00
- Sergio Higuita (Bora-Hansgrohe) +0:00
- David Gonzalez (Caja Rural - Seguros RGA) +0:00
- Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain-Victorious) +0:00
- Aleksandr Vlasov (Bora-Hansgrohe) +0:00
- Wout Poels (Bahrain-Victorious) +0:00
The final standings in the overall standings
- Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) 28:21:29
- Mikel Landa (Soudal - Quick Step) +3:41
- Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) +5:03
- Aleksandr Vlasov (Bora-Hansgrohe) +5:56
- Enric Mas (Movistar) +6:01
- Chris Harper (Team Jayco-AlUla) +6:01
- Lenny Martinez (Groupama-FDJ) +6:02
- Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain-Victorious) +6:33
- Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) +6:33
- Lorenzo Fortunato (Astana Qazqastan) +7:27
This is how the 7th stage of the Tour of Catalonia 2024 went
A quintet around Steinhauser, who had already performed well the day before, went on the offensive after around ten kilometres and built up a maximum lead of two minutes on the way out of Barcelona. By the time the group was back in the city centre and tackled the final six laps of the Alt del Castell de Montjuic, there was still about one and a half minutes left.
Israel - Premier Tech took care of the chase, with Pogacar's UAE Team Emirates also providing support. Nairo Quintana (Movistar) and Frank van den Broek (dsm-firmenich PostNL) crashed shortly before the first finish, the Colombian got into the team car in a daze. The lead had already dropped to well under a minute on the first crossing of the mountain, as the first attacks at the back increased the pace in the peloton.
Steinhauser shakes them all off
Soler was then also among the attackers. In the meantime, the lead group fell apart, Steinhauser and the Norwegian Idar Andersen (Uno-X Mobility) remained alone at the front. Soler initially had Valentin Paret-Peintre (Decathlon - AG2R La Mondiale) and Louis Barre (Arkea-B&B Hotels) with him, but he quickly shook off the latter on his way to the front.
However, the leading duo became the soloist Steinhauser 28 kilometres from the end, who shook off Andersen on the third lap and kept his lead over the peloton constant at 40 seconds. Soler also failed to catch up and was dropped again on the fourth lap.
Attacks on the final lap do not bring a decision
Steinhauser saved himself until the penultimate lap, but when Ineos Grenadiers took over the pace, the 22-year-old also had to admit defeat. After further attacks, which all fizzled out, Pogacar picked up the pace on the climb, which was up to 19 per cent steep. This allowed the Slovenian to significantly reduce the head group, but he was unable to break away. So they set off together on the final lap.
Thomas De Gendt (Lotto-Dstny) opened the finale. When the Belgian was dropped, Bora-Hansgrohe took over and kept the pace high. Nevertheless, Stephen Williams (Israel-Premier Tech) was able to shoot out five kilometres before the end, six riders around Pogacar were able to close the gap again, the pace was slowed down again.
Almeida tried two kilometres before the finish, but he only made it as far as the Devil's Lap on the sloping terrain. A sprint from a small group had to decide the outcome - and Pogacar proved to be unbeatable there too.
