Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) took his second win of the 2017 Volta a Catalunya Friday, riding away from Chris Froome (Team Sky) and Alberto Contador (Trek-Segafredo) on the upper slopes of Lo Port and taking the overall lead from Tejay van Garderen, who lost contact with the leaders in the final kilometres.
Valverde now leads Froome by 21 seconds and Contador by 47, while his teammate Marc Soler is fourth, one minute down. Van Garderen slipped to sixth, 1:18 back with Adam Yates (Orica-Scott) in fifth.
Valverde donned the race leader's jersey once again after teammate Jose Rojas and then Valverde himself were stripped of the lead when the race jury penalized Movistar for infractions during the stage 2 team time trial.
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"It's a victory and a leader's jersey really special because of everything that happened during the last few days," Valverde said. "Things like those, outside the racing itself, are not ones that we like. In the end, we managed to get people excited and happy about our racing, and that's what counts."
Valverde left little doubt about who was the strongest rider in the race on Friday, making the most of his team's work on the early slopes of Lo Port Tortosa by sailing away from the rest of the contenders on the steepest pitches and then powering on for the win.
Froome picked up the Team Sky baton once Geraint Thomas was dropped, but the three-time Tour de France winner could only watch as Valverde danced away. Contador was able to stay on terms briefly with Valverde, but he was soon jettisoned as well and was eventually swept up and passed by Froome.
How it unfolded
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
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