The Slovenian Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) consolidated this Friday in the leadership of the Tour of Catalonia after winning the fifth stage between Tortosa and the top of Lo Port alone.
Roglic left his great rival Remco Evenepoel (Quick Step) behind in the last meters, who was second, and the Portuguese Joao Almeida (UAE), who entered third position.
The Slovenian ended up prevailing in the duel that the two great favorites of the Catalan round held in the last meters of the hard climb to Lo Port with ramps of up to 15%.
Roglic, three times winner of the Vuelta a España, launched a final attack 50 meters from the finish line, which his competitor could no longer follow, leading the Belgian by 6 seconds.
The two big favorites had started the stage level in the general with the same time, but the bonuses achieved allow Roglic to have a 10-second advantage over Evenepoel in the general.
Joao Almeida was placed in the third drawer of the podium, 1 minute and 2 seconds behind the leader.
The penultimate stage of the Volta ended up being decided on the hard ascent ramps to Lo Port, where the peloton ended up hunting down the breakaway of the day with just 6km to go.
Then the war between Evenepoel and Roglic began, with Almeida and his Spanish teammate Marc Soler as guests, in the wake of the two great favourites, who would end up playing for the stage victory and the general.
On Saturday the sixth and penultimate stage of the Tour of Catalonia will take place, of 183 km, between Martorell and Molins de Rei with a single second-category stop.