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Mikel Landa of Bahrain Victorious finished fifth after a strong fight in the Volta a Catalunya, which concluded on Sunday.
Primoz Roglic of Jumbo-Visma held off several attacks from GC rival Remco Evenepoel, of Soudal-QuickStep, to survive the hilly final stage and claim the overall win.
Sports director Xavier Florencio said: “In general, Mikel finished fifth. Even on the final stage one of the objectives was to try to go to the podium, but it was difficult, other GC riders were stronger.
“We started this Volta thinking about the podium. We tried with our leaders in Vallter (stage 1). We put the team in the last climb with a strong pace, but in the end, Mikel lost some time, and from that point, he was the sole leader for us in Volta a Catalunya. Since we put all the team effort into him, so in Lo Port (stage 5) we tried to gain some time in GC, but Almeida was super strong and we could not fight for the podium. The last opportunity was here in Barcelona (stage 7), but we have to be happy with the final result as all the riders gave what they could.
“Gino was our co-leader but in stage 1 he suffered a lot, he didn’t have a good feeling so we lost him for GC. Wout and Jack were super in the climbs, Rainer and Pernsteiner were trying to go to breakaway from the start to protect the team, and also they did a good effort for the team, and specially Yukiya was super strong to protect the team in the flat parts, for positioning. Also, for him, it was the first race of the season only. All in all, we are happy with fifth place.”
Landa said: “We finished fifth in Catalunya, and I’m happy with the result. At the beginning of the race, we had big ambitions, we wanted to finish on the podium and win a stage, but we found very strong contenders and had some difficulties. I think our team did a very good job, we’ve been fighting every day and I’m happy with the attitude of the team and my performance.”
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