After yesterday’s sprint finish, today’s stage at the Volta Ciclista a Catalunya proved to be a bit more challenging again, featuring two longer climbs along the 167.3 kilometres from Altafulla to Viladecans. Many teams were interested in the breakaway, and it took more than 80 kilometres before a group of four cyclists managed to break free. However, they never gained a substantial lead, and the pace in the chasing peloton remained high throughout the day. During the final climb of the day, splits opened up in the bunch, with Frank van den Broek narrowly missing the first group by a few meters. Fortunately, he found himself in a good chasing group and rejoined the leading peloton before the final stretch. He drafted behind some wheels ahead of the reduced bunch sprint and finished in a respectable 10th place for Team dsm-firmenich PostNL after a hard and fast day.
After the stage Van den Broek said: “It was a hard and long fight for the breakaway. We all could feel our legs from the previous days so we were suffering on the climbs. I got dropped on the last climb but quickly found myself in a motivated chasing group. We joined the peloton with about ten kilometres to go. I got myself in a good position coming out of the last corner and could do a solid sprint, finishing tenth from the reduced bunch.”