An eventful day for Soudal Quick-Step on the Spanish roads.
Alberto Dainese took our team’s second top ten at the season’s last Grand Tour, showing a strong turn of legs in the hectic finish of stage five, which concluded on the streets of the Catalan town of Roquetes.
After four days spent in Monaco and Andorra, the peloton finally arrived in Spain for what turned out to be the first proper bunch sprint of this edition. It was a pretty straightforward day, despite a couple of short hills and a classified climb, a quiet day until the finish, with a few exceptions.
One of these was Ethan Hayter, who zipped away from the peloton after the first breakaway of the day was brought back, and rode by himself at the front of the race, winning the only intermediate sprint. It was a smart move from the British ITT Champion, who cemented his place in the upper part of the points classification after just five days of racing.
As they approached the business end of the stage, the bunch continued to control things, setting a tempo that didn’t allow any attacks and making sure it would all come down to a mass gallop, which was won by Matthew Brennan (Visma-Lease a Bike). Dainese finished eighth there, while the general classification remained unchanged.
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