Peter Sagan has recaptured some of his old form and racing style on stage 6 at Volta a Catalunya to take his first victory of the season.
The three-time world champion put his team on the front in the closing stages to keep the whittled down peloton together. And in the final, slightly uphill, dash to the line he surfed the wheels to take a very clear victory.
While Sagan is still only 31-years-old he hit the top of the sport a decade ago and his results of late suggested he may be on the wane, scoring just one win - at the Giro - last year. However, his 4th at Milan-Sanremo last weekend after a recent bout of Covid-19 suggested he was in good form.
And that was confirmed today with victory on the 193.8km stage from Tarragona to Mataró ahead of Daryl Impey (Israel Start-Up Nation) and Juan Sebastián Molano (UAE-Team Emirates) in a sprint from a peloton of just over 90 riders. Sagan claimed the stage just 24 hours after team mate Lennard Kämna won stage 5.
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The stage featured plenty of climbing but failed to split the field up to any great extent, with the top three positions still filled by Ineos Grenadiers; Adam Yates leading on GC from Richie Porte and Geraint Thomas.
The last climb of the day saw some of the climbers in the field - most notably Wout Poels (Bahrain Victorious) - go on the attack before a regrouping for the descent, where Rémi Cavagna (Deceuninck-QuickStep) lit it up.
There were 15km to go from the top of that final 2.9km climb to the finish line and the French TT champion stayed away on his own for about half of that distance before being swallowed up.
The final kilometre was up and down, making for a chaotic approach, with Sagan visible near the front robustly protecting his position before unleashing his winning sprint.
After having scored just one win last year - and been beaten by Sam Bennett to Tour de France green - Sagan now looks back on track for the upcoming classics.
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