In the battle among the top classification riders at yesterday’s queen stage at the Volta a Catalunya, Scarponi and Niemiec of Lampre-Merida defended their GC positions even though they were unable to follow the explosions of Rodriguez (Katusha) and Quintana (Movistar).

The Italian climber was 8th at 1'02" behind stage winner Martin (Garmin-Sharp) while his Polish teammate was 11th at 1'23".
 

Scarponi is 5th in the overall standing at 39" while Niemiec is 7th at 1'.

"I'm satisfied, considering that I battled against the top climbers and I'm still 5th in the overall classification,” Scarponi commented. “I felt good on the final climb and, since I still had energies, when Rodriguez attacked at 1500 metres to go, I followed him. I could pedal on his wheel for some hundred meters but when he raised the pace again, I preferred not to exceed my limits and so I reached the finish line with Wiggins. The breakaway containing 23 riders was dangerous, also because Movistar, who was controlling the race properly, stopped their actions after Valverde crashed."