Dumoulin and Poels in the front group in Catalonia | 1Limburg

Wout Poels was the best Dutchman with his fifteenth place. Tom Dumoulin was slightly behind Poels in the large group and finished 22nd. Both Limburg riders were in a large leading group.

Matthews wins
The stage was won by Michael Matthews. The Australian from BikeExchange-Jayco was too strong for Sonny Colbrelli and Quentin Pacher in the sprint. The stage win makes Matthews the first leader in the Spanish stage race.

Also read: Poels and Dumoulin pick up again in Catalonia

Only second race for Dumoulin
For Dumoulin, it is only the second race of the season. A corona infection kept him off the Italian course Strade Bianche. He opened his season with the UAE Tour. He finished that round in the United Arab Emirates with varying degrees of success. In the time trial he finished third, uphill he couldn’t keep up with the competition.

Pools in shape
Wout Poels is the man in shape. The rider from Blitterswijck already won the Ruta del Sol this year. During Paris-Nice, where he was a helper to leader Jack Haig, he finished in fifteenth place in the general classification.

Mountain stages
The Tour of Catalonia has a total of seven stages. The riders will have to deal with the necessary climbing kilometers in the coming days. The stage race ends in Barcelona on Sunday. Last year, the final standings was won by the Adam Yates.