The sixth stage of the Volta Catalunya always looked like being a GC battle and it did not fail to deliver on this promise with the overall race classification being well defined by the end of the day and the final climb up to Queralt. For the team it ended up being a day of survival and finishing safely without expending too much ahead of tomorrow’s final stage.
Frank van den Broek was first across the line in 51st place whilst unfortunately Martijn Tusveld did not start the stage, leaving the team down to four going into tomorrow’s last day of racing.
After the stage Team dsm-firmenich PostNL coach Phil West said: “Another tough day in the trenches with the boys today. We really wanted to find a break to put Frank in it but it was a really peculiar race. Right from the off when two guys had 15 second, UAE were riding controlled tempo behind and not letting anyone jump. So it was an attritional race and about survival. Frank tried to ride a sensible race until he couldn’t follow anymore with a view to not wasting any energy before tomorrow. He came through today OK in one piece and we can now focus on trying to round the week off tomorrow in a good way.”
