Pogačar crowned with poker in Barcelona
March 24 th 2024 - 15:59 [GMT + 1]
The 103rd edition of the Volta Ciclista a Catalunya will go down in history as the edition of Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates), the most charismatic cyclist of his generation, who finished off the race with a fourth stage victory on its final day, the traditional finale in the city of Barcelona and its Montjuïc circuit. A victory in a hard-fought reduced sprint that adds to those achieved with solo attacks in the mountain stages finished in Vallter, Port Ainé and Queralt to frame a week for history for the Slovenian.
At 25 years of age, double Tour de France winner and five-time Monuments champion Tadej Pogačar has added the Volta a Catalunya to his long list of victories in world-class events, a year after his compatriot Primož Roglič took victory. Two cyclists of reference in their generation who have left their mark in Catalonia in two editions to remember.
The final day of this 2024 edition reached its seventh stage, a day of 145.3 kilometers starting from the Plaza de Espanya in Barcelona, with passage through the Coll de la Creu d' Ordal (3rd category) in its initial ride through the Baix Llobregat and return to the capital for six laps of the circuit of l' Alt del Castell de Montjuïc.
There, a group of five breakaway riders arrived highlighted with Ander Okamika (Burgos-BH) winning the prize as the most combative rider of the day and German Georg Steinhauser (EF Education-EasyPost), who had already been a protagonist in the fifth stage on the way to Viladecans, was the man who most resisted the rider's push in the first laps of the Montjuïc circuit, with attacks from names like Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates) and the work of Egan Bernal's Ineos Granaderos team. The young German was caught at the start of the last lap, with the group on fire after a first move by Pogačar on the passage through the toughest ramps of Castell de Montjuïc.
Despite attacks on the last lap by Thomas De Gendt (Lotto-Dstny), the Belgian icon who was bidding farewell to the race in which he has added five stage wins in his career, Stephen Williams (Israel-Premier Tech) or Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates), nothing prevented a reduced sprint finish of about twenty riders in which Pogačar proved his versatility with a fourth victory. A poker for the memory of Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) in this Volta a Catalunya 2024, a generational cyclist who has led the final podium in Barcelona ahead of Mikel Landa (Soudal Quick-Step), at 3:41, and a recovered Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers), who returns to the final podium of the Volta after climbing in 2019. Three high-level protagonists for a Volta Ciclista a Catalunya that has lived a great week of competition between Sant Feliu de Guíxols and Barcelona.
