A day after his general classification hopes went up in flames, Chris Froome bounced back on the final stage of the Volta a Catalunya on Sunday, with a late attack on the Montjuïc circuit. Ultimately. The attack came to little, as Froome moved up just one position on GC, but it was a show of pride after losing so much time the day before.
On stage 6 of the race, Froome and Team Sky were caught out on an early descent and would eventually lose over 26 minutes and drop from second to 31st overall. On the fast stage 7 circuit, Team Sky was aiming to make amends for the previous day with Phil Deignan and Mikel Nieve lifting the pace for the attacks to come.
Geraint Thomas also dropped out of the top-ten on stage 6 and was the first Team Sky rider to attack from the peloton. The move was short lived as the peloton shut down the breakaway attempt. Froome then launched his attack inside 10km to race and quickly pulled out a 15-second lead.
Froome, wearing the red KOM jersey on loan from race leader Alejandro Valverde (Movistar), enjoyed several kilometres off the front before the peloton brought him back. Valverde then sealed his overall win by winning the stage ahead of Jarlinson Pantano (Trek-Segafredo) as Froome crossed the line in 48th.
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"We know this stage and we've seen how you can race on this parcours. It's nice to do something for the team and the Sky jersey. Obviously we lost everything yesterday. We waited as the laps went down, and we saw already that other teams were pulling so there was some interest in the stage win," sport director Nico Portal said.
"We left it late and then the guys tried one by one. G had a go and then Froomey went. The plan was also to try something with Kiry but the pace was so high by the end he was a bit on the limit."
Froome finished the race as the highest placed Team Sky rider in 30th place overall, 28:19 minutes down on Valverde while Thomas was 34th overall.
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