The short and fast stage in Barcelona was coloured by a group of 32 frontrunners with a number of strong riders, including Bouwman. After a hectic opening phase, the peloton let them go and the lead quickly increased to around five minutes. Bouwman tried to go for the mountain classification, but this proved to be in vain. Kuss was unable to keep up with the pace of the group of favourites in the last local lap and lost his top ten ranking.

Sports director Grischa Niermann was disappointed. “This race did not bring what we thought and hoped for beforehand. We were not able to ride a short classification. It unfortunately ended in disappointment. Koen was in front today, but unfortunately Sepp couldn’t follow the favourites on the last lap. Too bad, but it’s not like that.”