“For us it was a matter of surviving”, sports director Grischa Niermann said. “We didn’t bring a sprinter along and the stage didn’t lend itself to trying anything. Nevertheless, it was not an easy stage. The guys worked well for Sepp and kept him in a good position near the front.”

The Volta a Catalunya finishes tomorrow in Barcelona with six climbs of Montjuic. “Tomorrow, anything can still happen in the general classification. There is a new climb in the course, making the stage even tougher than other years. We will see if anything is still possible tomorrow.”