Colombian Sergio Higuita wins touring Catalonia

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The rise was relatively short, but its steepest point was over 19 per cent. The rise tore the top group smaller round by round, but the top men in the overall race and their assistants were so careful that it no longer settled for winning the overall race. Colombian champion Sergio Higuita (BORA-Hansgrohe), who rose to the top in the previous stage, was sure to win.

The final leg of the 138.5-kilometer tour of Catalonia culminated in the Montjuic tour in Barcelona. It was run six times and also a sixth rise in Montjuic's tight second category.

When the distance was 48 miles to the finish and the final laps began, a tough attempt began. The group of 10 drivers who came to the laps disintegrated in an instant and after that there were detachment groups in different configurations. In the final round, there was a group of six, and later seven, drivers at the top. It featured all the top names in the overall competition. As the group watched each other, 12 more drivers came from behind to fight for the stage victory. Italian Andrea Bagioli (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl Team) became the stage winner from this group.

The winner of this year's tour of Catalonia was found second in the final leg when Sergio Higuita escaped a long break with Richard Garapaz (INEOS Grenadiers) of Ecuador. The detachment guaranteed Carapaz's second place in the overall race. He was left with the winner for 16 seconds. Third was UAE Team Emirates's Joao Almeida (+ 0:52). Captain of the Jaakko Hänninen team, Ben O'Connor, finished sixth in the overall race (+1: 10). The good result of the Norwegian team Uno-X, which was the first touring Catalonia, should be noted. Its Tobias Halland Johannessen was seventh and Torstein Tree ninth.

Jaakko Hänninen, who has rarely been able to compete in recent weeks, worked for his team's captain all week.

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