John Degenkolb has raced to his second runner’s up spot of the week on the final stage of the Vuelta a Andalucia Ruta del Sol in Spain on the short sharp uphill finish in Alhaurín de la Torre.

The stage presented a final sprint opportunity for the team here in Spain and they gave it everything, helping to control the stage and to keep Degenkolb in a good position throughout the day to be able to battle out the stage win at the finish. On the frantic uphill drag to the finish Degenkolb was just bested by Juan Jose Lobato (Movistar).

With Simon Geschke’s Meta Volantes jersey already sewn up after yesterday’s penultimate stage, the team focused on getting Degenkolb into the best possible position for a fast finish. After the day’s break was established Daan Olivier joined the chase and the day was well controlled with the escape neutralised with seven kilometres to go.

The pace continued to rise on the run in to the final kilometres but this didn’t stop the attacks as a plucky effort to surprise the punchy sprinters animated the final kilometres. Lobato jumped from behind with around 400m to race, catching the lone leader and getting a gap, sparking a pursuit from Degenkolb behind but he had too much ground to make up by the finish and ended up in the same position he took on stage 2.

After the dust had settled, coach Christian Guiberteau gave his thoughts on the stage and the past week in Spain: “With Simon’s intermediate jersey already secured we could fully focus on setting up the sprint for John today. The stage got off to a fast start with a tailwind pushing the riders on.

“Daan helped to control behind the break while Caleb [Fairly] had to call it a day at the feedzone due to sickness, but the guys still managed to do a good job to control and look after John. At the finish they got him up into a good position but Lobato got the jump on everyone from behind and John had to go himself. He couldn’t quite make it back to him and finished second.

“Of course he’s a bit disappointed to not get a win here this week but it has been a good race despite the bad luck we have had, with the crashes and injuries early on and losing Tobias and then Caleb today. It was good to have a jersey in the team and take something home as well as two strong second places so I’m happy looking back at this race.”