Warren Barguil and Georg Preidler made the selection around the tough finishing circuit in Barcelona on the final stage of the Volta Ciclista a Cataunya today before both finishing just outside the top ten.

The arduous parcours of the rolling circuit together with the tough, wet conditions made for a race of attrition as riders tried one more time to get a result at the week-long WorldTour race. The high pace eventually caused a group of 31 to form at the head of the race once the day’s breakaway had been swallowed up and from this group Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) proved fastest at the finish to take his third stage win of the race.

Lawson Craddock, having already fallen yesterday, suffered another crash in the wet today and did not finish the stage but thankfully it was just road rash for the young American who was returning to racing here in Spain after his heavy fall at the Tour Down Under in January.

Overall, Barguil  was the highest placed rider from Team Giant-Alpecin in 17th place, 3’38” behind overall winner Richie Porte (Sky) who did just enough to hang onto his overall lead, finishing with just 4″ over Valverde.

Carter Jones was a non-starter on the final stage after suffering from sickness overnight. 

After the race, coach Addy Engels said: “It was a fast day today – Movistar wanted to try for bonus seconds and the stage win to move up on GC and they managed to do this.

“We tried to go in the break early on but also knew that if Movistar went for it then it would be tough to stay away. Warren and Georg were riding strong and made the final front group but it was too fast to really attack so it was a case of holding on and seeing what result they could get at the end.

“Overall I’m pretty happy with how we worked as a team but we obviously had more in mind for results. We came to the race with a few guys not in great shape so it was a case of easing into it and seeing how everyone was. But overall it was a young team, we got some nice results.”