Geraint Thomas Incredible Sprint Leadout for Hayter | Volta a Catalunya 2024 Stage 4

Lanterne Rouge presents highlights of Volta a Catalunya 2024 Stage 4

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Credits:
Footage | Amaury Sport Organisation
Photos | Cor Vos (unless stated otherwise)

You’ve got to be in it to win it every year we say why don’t more teams send a good Sprinter to volter catalunia it’s a world tour race and often the Sprint field is not that strong and this is uh from sort to Y 170 K it was pretty much

The only guaranteed Sprint stage good weather we’re leaving the western part of the Pyrenees near where they finished in Pon yday going south to yada which is a reasonable siiz City in the west of Catalonia because we’re going through till terrain there’s still one climbing the stage to mix things up the final

Really wasn’t that challenging so it would be a Sprint there were a fair few teams who have a sprinter here or Sprint option day off for UAE most likely and maybe an opportunity for the uh Spanish invitation teams to get in the Breakaway but most of them weren’t there there was

A strong uh showing of The sprinters teams chasing this Breakaway which only had an AA K farmer rer represented from those teams uh but then Thomas decided he wanted to get rid of barade I don’t know why exactly maybe he was trying to teach him a lesson like he

Taught a lesson to Rubio in the jro a few years ago so he does that big effort to drop aider he’s probably never going to be in a breakaway with again but I guess the principal if he’s not carrying his weight is more important just like letting Ghana win the jro stage but

Those two go clear UA as I said didn’t have to pace today and the breakway is pretty much under control two Riders all the climbing done 230 Gap and like four teams chasing hard kofus for hard karthy on EF chasing for Marin venberg Anto maray for Ana merid and alberon de

Kernick for Axel loss who we actually see quite relaxed the French rider having a bit of bit of frankophone banto with Valentine Perry pantra I’m not sure what he said actually he’s trying to wind him up to the camera it was that sort of day great Court intermediate

Sprint uh Sprint cous the New Evolution of GC Cous I think Pips to bury on the line but wpo’s sneaky good Sprinter takes the majority of the second so Podium battle still was on a little bit uh but the break CT they’re all chilling OS rer goes clear and it’s still the

Same teams chasing four teams now with the EF having more Riders represented at the front but the Finish was pretty technical there’s some roundabouts quite a few roundabouts in fact and some Road Furniture some narrowings it’s obviously a full Pelon because it’s been the easiest day we’ll have in catalunia so

The GC team started to get a bit serious in the last 10ks keeping their Riders In Front position you see Vima for cous UA for pater obviously inios I think they’re setting up hater mostly at this point here’s this roundabout or this is one of the biggest roundabouts I’ve seen

This year under a Motorway the left side was actually much quicker so the the riders that went left they moved up about 20 positions or 15 positions on average and 5Ks to go it was time for the actual Sprinter teams to take over coveris for Lok gu Maran pacing there

And then inos they’re going for Ethan hater in this Sprint he’s won quite a few Sprints in uh stages or R races like this like Romy or ponia where there’s a bit of a hill and he’s got two two of the France Champions Egan beral and

Grant Thomas doing the lead out for him so that must be filling with confidence and inos were obviously setting their stall out for him today they were missing a final man though because pool it was really really good and we saw what he did for Cavendish last year in

The durur Italia on the final stage in in Rome how good his pool was and yeah they wanted to be at the front inos early because of all this road furniture backto back roundabouts and so you are saving energy being at the front here not having to move up but they were just

Missing that final man and it’s not like the other teams here have the most stack lead outs even alerson didn’t Groves had to abandon this race normally L roll or not abandoned I’m not sure he started Lon would have been his lead out most likely and Groves won a stage or two

Here last year but you can see that Thomas has been on the front for ages normally arider doing a lead out in a Sprint stage can’t stay on the front uncontested unopposed for over a kilometer deep into the last cave but he gets to about 600 700 met to go and

There’s just no other train there DSM with pinch the um L National Champion third wheel Lotto had mosca there’s Doran gon for decathlon Maran Vandenberg probably the quickest man as well as card on kofus but they don’t really have any any lead outs doing very much card is freelancing same with Vandenberg so

Really really impressive pull from G got uh did his job it’s just the way it worked out actually they’re probably hoping someone came earlier for to put haer on the wheel but that’s not what happens Lotto come late in the last 500 met venburg is chilling he’s just on

Near card’s wheel surfing between that and seral Bart he moves ahead of Bart group arm fdj rer and Ana Merit onto lay ping wheel going on the inside although it’s a it’s a massive Road there it’s not that technical at this point and the luderer goes incredibly early 300 met to

Go coard comes out of his wheel even earlier and he’s probably not as quick as vandenbberg and a downhill or fast Sprint anyway venburg gets to SL the run into his back wheel doesn’t even have to change direction when card opens up and he wins his second world tour race

Pretty comfortably he won in Pia last year the Dutch Sprinter on EF education easy post and he wins ahead of leing and Meritt for one of those other Sprints or that we have every year where you think damn there’s some teams in that haven’t got a World toour Victory yet this year

That might have thought about sending a sprinter to this race but got to be in a TN it like I said at the start Vandenberg was EF have one Sprinter and he’s actually had a pretty good return for them on his Neo Pro contract wi Merit Kar laurance B hater godon Al and

Mosa here’s what he had to say after the stage hi Marin congratulations on the victory of this first Sprint finish at the Volta catalunia 2024 uh tell us about the Victory and how did you get to that outcome yeah it was a really uh fast day the plan was to

Go for me the whole day so uh yeah the team rode in the front to control the break and uh yeah I felt quite good the whole day and they kept me in front and in the end was kind of hectic with the roundabouts but uh yeah I knew that

Brian Carr was a really fast guy and tried to aim for his wheel because the team uh yeah was a bit apart in the end so I tried to aim for his wheel and kept it until the finish and then just uh came over it the last few hundred meters

Tell us about this year so far first victory of the year for you um H how are you feeling in terms of compared to other Seasons at at this point coming in March yeah I think I made a big step in the in the winter again uh it was going

Really well in the beginning and then I crashed quite hard in orar and had a concussion so I was out for a little bit and uh I started competing last week in uh milanino and Milano and then I came here to focus on the on getting in shape

Again and see how the outcome would be here in uh in the in the stage like today and now I’m back on track I would say thank you congratulations enjoy enjoy yeah today was a day to to recover a little bit it was three very hard in

The Ming stages the last three days so yeah today was a really nice day for for us uh for the team and I think for the whole Paton was uh quite an uh easier day GC pretty much unchanged cous and poles move a little bit closer to mass

And Harper because of the bonus seconds and we have some har stage coming up tomorrow is another possible Sprint stage Saturday is a real big GC stage as well as a circuit on uh Sunday hope you enjoyed the video and I’ll see you with the recap tomorrow ciao