You can probably count on one hand the number of stage races in recent years in which a GC contender has attacked over 100km and broken up the race.

But in the highly volatile Volta a Catalunya, where no less than six riders led the race over six days, that is exactly what happened on Saturday's sixth stage.

A joint attack by Richard Calapaz (Ineos Grenadiers) and Sergio Iguita (Bora-Hansgrohe) was set up on the first category climb at 130 km from home, and a rain-soaked stage through the little-known sierras of southern Catalunya The stage opened with a rain-soaked stage through the little-known Sierra in southern Catalunya. As a result, race leader Joan Almeida and UAE Team Emirates were largely isolated and ultimately eliminated.

At the finish line, Calapaz, who had previously finished third overall, and Igita, who was ninth, finished 7 and 27 seconds behind, respectively.

But it did not matter. On a day when the Ecuadorian and Colombian riders broke the usual script for major stage race winners, Iguita moved into the lead and Calapaz took the stage win in second place overall.

More importantly, as Higuita told the Spanish website Zikloland, "It was a stage we could tell our children about."

While the fact that such a move worked was another timely example for race organizers of how a summit finish does not have to offer a glamorous race, one factor was undoubtedly the route of the stage.

The hardest part was the start, with the first 40 km of the Col de l'Ebre first class mountain, and the rest was nonstop tobogganing on winding, undulating roads through the Prades mountains that stretch above the start and finish towns of Salou and Cambrils. Rain like overturned buckets, a peloton exhausted after five days of hard racing, and racers still clustered within GC range after spending two days in the Pyrenees .......

However, Ineos Grenadiers sporting director Brett Lancaster told Cycling News that in his case, after the fifth stage, when the team was down to four riders, after he and Calapaz began to ponder what the British team could do from a GC perspective he made the decision to actually put it into action.

"I was thinking about things on Friday night, and I went to the other two directors and said, 'Hey, I have an idea. And I also talked to race coach Mikel Arteche, who is also a trainer in Calapaz."

The key to it all was having a strong rider who could pick the race apart early on, and this time Luke Plapp was the ideal solution.

"We knew that Luke was fresh at the start and struggling at the finish, partly because he was new to the World Tour.

"Then we thought about the bad weather and said, 'Let's make sure everyone is well fueled and has a jacket on at the top of the climb. And we decided to take on the challenge."

When Kalapas, Igita, and Plapp raced up the first category of the climb and cut off the field, he was, as Igita later recounted, the sole survivor of the first Ineos Grenadiers battle plan. But he was not there by accident.

"We have struggled a bit in the last few weeks, but it was very important to perform at the highest possible level here," Bora-Hansgrohe director sportif Christian Pomer told Cycling News.

"Today [Saturday] the plan was to go for the overall lead with Sergio, but as any cycling fan can imagine, there was no plan to go on the first climb.

"But Bernie Eisel's reconnaissance car said there was a tailwind on the first climb after the hairpin. Then Almeida dropped out and the UAE team was in trouble. [even if Plapp was suffering from bad weather.

"They pushed on at the front and Luke went a little cold. He was left behind with Igita and Carapas. But it was a very twisty day and I knew it would be difficult for the teams coming up from behind." So," he chuckled, "the master plan worked."

The general fatigue that is now affecting many players in the Volta had a beneficial effect on those who were fit enough to make the most of it, Pomer admitted.

"I think there were a lot of dead bodies as well as tired bodies. If you look at the start list, a lot of teams abandoned; out of the 23 teams, only Euskaltel Euskadi was completely unscathed.

Besides, when Plapp sat down exhausted after his work, the two riders were well matched on the move in terms of aerodynamics and effort due to their similar builds.

Thus, it was unlikely that one would drop the other, and in fact, the two stayed together until the finish in Cambrils, three hours away. Immediately after the finish, the Colombians and Ecuadorians exchanged hugs of appreciation for each other, symbolizing their strong working relationship.

"Iguita rode well on the wet downhill where Calapaz struggled a bit," Lancaster noted, "Calapaz had a crash on the first day, so maybe he was a little less confident."

"Then strategically, there were no big risks on GC. Carlos Rodriguez was there [in the chase group] and he had his own GC option. And we did it."

"They were perfectly matched, they spoke the same language, they were physically good.

The two coaches talked a bit in the back, Pommer confirmed, about how the two riders, who are normally rivals, would race as an alliance on this day.

"I talked to Brett in the Ineos car when we were 3:30 behind, and he was sure he could make it to the end. But I didn't let my guard down until the last kilometer."

Higuchi now leads, and Pomer is confident of his chances to defend Beulah Hansgrohe's lead.

But whatever happens in Barcelona on Sunday, the sixth stage of the Volta a Catalunya will live long in fans' memories. [Lancaster said it was "a bit like [Alberto] Contador's attack on the 2012 Vuelta a España," referring to the historic move by Spanish GC racer Contador that tore the race apart on the theoretically easy, hilly stage to Fuente de

"The UAE gave everything they had and rode really well. We know that Carapaz and Carlos are good in the cold. Kalapas and the others can recover - only a handful of players can do that and we have to take advantage of that.

"In Coppi e Bartali we cleaned up too (Eddie Dunbar took the overall win - Editor). We also cleaned up in Coppi e Bartali (with Eddie Dunbar's overall win). It was a big win with only four riders.