Roglic show in Catalonia! Slovenian crushes Ayuso and UAE with dominant solo and takes the double victory in the final stage

After Saturday’s weather-shortened stage was won by Quinn Simmons, the riders in Spain were left with one last challenge on Sunday: a short 88-kilometer stage. Ayuso had to defend his leader’s jersey against Roglic, with just a one-second lead separating the two, giving the Spaniard only a slight edge.

This made the short but explosive stage in and around Barcelona a thrilling battle of seconds. Two intermediate sprints offered valuable bonus seconds along the route. Roglic crossed the first sprint line in first place, earning three bonus seconds. His teammate Nico Denz finished second, with Ayuso taking third. That gave Roglic a two-second gain on Ayuso—making him the new virtual leader.

Ayuso was jolted awake by the first intermediate sprint. The Spaniard looked far more alert in the second and claimed the full three bonus seconds. Nico Denz was narrowly beaten and settled for two seconds, while Roglic crossed the line in third, earning a single bonus second. This was enough to repair the earlier damage for Ayuso, who once again became the virtual race leader—holding onto that razor-thin one-second advantage over his Slovenian rival.

Enough with the bonus-second chess match—it was time to race. The climb to the Montjuïc had to be tackled six times, giving attackers a perfect chance to light up the early Sunday afternoon. Richard Carapaz was quick to animate the race, launching an early move, but he couldn't make it stick. Tom Donnenwirth, however, did manage to escape. The Brit from Groupama-FDJ opened up a small gap and was later joined by Emanuel Buchmann. Still, their effort was reeled in with 21 kilometers to go.

That’s when Roglic decided to go all-in. The Slovenian launched a solo attack on the fourth ascent of the Montjuïc, committing to a daring move with nearly 20 kilometers to go. Behind him, the other GC favorites grouped together. Ayuso, noticeably without teammates—where was UAE Team Emirates?—was seen frantically communicating through his earpiece and even hesitated briefly. Meanwhile, Roglic steadily extended his lead to 20 seconds.

Behind the Slovenian, Simon Yates and Quinn Simmons tried to bridge the gap. The duo briefly broke away from the chasing group, but they too were caught with 15 kilometers to go. Roglic, meanwhile, calmly continued in time-trial mode, as the chasing peloton just couldn’t seem to close the gap.

On the penultimate climb of Montjuïc, there was another acceleration from the peloton. This time it was Enric Mas—third in the overall standings—who made the move, and he was joined by Axel Laurance, Mikel Landa, and Lennert Van Eetvelt. Ayuso was nowhere to be seen, while Roglic was still holding a gap of just twelve seconds over the chasing quartet.

However, just before entering the final lap, the four chasers were reeled back in by the peloton. With eight kilometers remaining, it was once again Roglic versus the rest, as the Slovenian kept hammering away in solo mode. All eyes were on Ayuso to launch a last-ditch effort on the final ascent of Montjuïc, but the Spaniard never made an appearance at the front. Instead, it was Laurens De Plus who attacked hard, gaining a gap on the others. Van Eetvelt jumped across to his fellow Belgian, suddenly putting Roglic under pressure. But the Slovenian still crested the final climb solo, about ten seconds ahead of the Belgian pair.

On the descent and the flat run-in to the finish, Roglic stayed clear without trouble. He claimed a dominant victory in the final stage—and with it, the overall win in the Volta a Catalunya. It was his second GC title in Catalonia and yet another impressive addition to his palmarès. Behind him, De Plus outsprinted Van Eetvelt for second place, while Ayuso—unable to respond—lost both the stage and the leader’s jersey on the final day.