Jonas Vingegaard seals Volta a Catalunya title to maintain strong start to season

Jonas Vingegaard triumphed at the Tour of Catalonia on Sunday as he continued his strong start to the season, while Brady Gilmore sprinted to a surprise stage seven victory.

Vingegaard topped the general classification, one minute and 22 seconds ahead of France's?Lenny Martinez and a further eight seconds before German Florian Lipowitz.

Australian cyclist Gilmore, racing with former Barcelona football great Andres Iniesta's NSN team, edged out Dorian Godon and Remco Evenepoel over the line in a thrilling bunch sprint finale.

Sunday's 95-kilometre final stage took in seven circuits of Montjuic in Barcelona, where the Tour de France will start in July.

Vingegaard, who was the race favourite in his first participation, took control in the Pyrenees with stage five and six solo victories.

The Dane, who also won two stages and the overall title at Paris-Nice earlier this month, is planning a Giro d'Italia and Tour de France double assault later in the year.

"We won two stages and now the GC, it's been a really good week and we're super happy with it, I'm super happy with it," said Vingegaard.

"It's been an amazing start to the year for me and I hope I can keep it going."

Vingegaard has six victories from just two weeks of racing this season.

"I feel very good at the moment, my shape is very good, (but) not the very best yet - we made a plan this year to progressively get better over the year. I'm pretty sure I still have more in me."

Godon, who won two sprint stages in the race, seemed set to grab a third, but Gilmore edged him over the line.

"In the end, maybe I was just too confident; there was another rider who came from behind and nabbed it," said Frenchman Godon, who won the points jersey.

"Still a good week, but disappointing today."

Double Olympic champion Evenepoel, who crashed earlier in the week and then cracked on the first uphill finish to scupper his chances of overall victory, frequently tried to attack, but the Belgian Red Bull rider had to settle for third on the day's podium.

Some expected Vingegaard to try and seal his triumph with a third consecutive stage win, but the two-time Tour de France champion said he had been focused on defending his lead.

"My main focus today was the GC, and especially the Red Bull guys. They did a very good job today, they made me be there alone and tried to attack me on shift," continued Vingegaard.

"Luckily I was able to defend myself and my GC. From there, it was more thinking about the GC rather than trying to win a stage."

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