The French Axel Laurence (Alpecin-Deceuninck) won this Friday the fifth stage of the Cycling Tour to Catalonia, in a tight mass sprint arriving in the Barcelona town of Viladecans. Meanwhile, in the general classification Pogacar remains the leader before Saturday’s queen stage in Berguedà, with five climbs, the third being the feared and unprecedented Coll de Pradell.

Although today’s route seemed designed for a successful escape, the pace of the peloton neutralized the only notable escape of the day by about 30 kilometers from the finish line and the victory was decided for the second consecutive day in a massive arrival.

The favorites entered the chasing group on par, so there were no notable changes in the general classification led by the Slovenian Tadej Pogacar (UAE Emirates Team), followed by the Alavés Mikel Landa (Soudal Quick-Step) to more than two minutes.

Classification of the 5th stage

1 – LAURANCE Axel (Alpecin) 3:36:05

2 – VAN DEN BERG Marijn (EF Education) mt

3 – COQUARD Bryan (Cofidis) mt

4 – AULAR Orluis (Caja Rural) mt

5 – WILLIAMS Stephen (Israel) mt

6 – KONRAD Patrick (Lidl) mt

7 – GODON Dorian (Decathlon) mt

8 – MIQUEL Pau (Kern Pharma) mt

9 – BARCELÓ Fernando (Caja Rural) mt

10 – VAN DEN BROEK Frank (Team DSM) mt

General ranking

1 – POGACAR Tadej (UAE) 20:54:36

2 – LANDA Mikel (Soudal) + 2:27

3 – VLASOV Aleksandr (BORA) + 2:55

4 – MARTINEZ Lenny (Groupama) + 3:21

5 – HARPER Chris (Jayco) + 3:22

6 – MAS Enric (Movistar) + 3:27

7 – KUSS Sepp (Visma) + 3:31

8 – POELS Wout (Bahrain) + 3:31

9 – BERNAL Egan (INEOS) + 3:50

10 – ALMEIDA Joao (UAE) + 3:52

Source: Eitb

Kingston

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