While Chris Froome struggles with the climbs after a spring illness, his Team Sky teammate Richie Porte is demonstrating fine form at the Volta a Catalunya, coming tantalisingly close to a stage win and bringing an overall victory closer to his reach during the 'queen stage' to La Molina on Thursday. Porte caught and dropped Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo), his fellow Giro d'Italia contender, on the final pitch to the finish, but missed out on the stage win to Tejay van Garderen (BMC). He now sits 21 seconds behind new race leader Bart De Clercq (Lotto Soudal), a member of the stage 1 breakaway that gained 2:40 on the peloton. "I?m a little bit disappointed to take second on the stage," Porte admitted to TeamSky.com. "Credit to Tejay, he attacked at the right moment. I needed to watch Alberto and Rigo a bit at that point but in terms of how the day went the team were fantastic."ADVERTISEMENT The team set a blistering pace over the day's penultimate ascent, the Alt de la Creueta, then reeled in the breakaway at the base of the final climb. "We took it on over the Creueta and to still have four guys over the top with me speaks volumes of the commitment from the boys," Porte said. "When Alberto attacked on the final climb we had Kiry [Vasil Kiryienka] up the road. He got a bit of a gap initially but I never panicked. I was expecting he?d attack and I was happy to ride back to Kiry ? who then rode as Kiry does ? like a steamroller. I was coming back at Tejay but just came up a little short." Porte would be six seconds in the lead over Domenico Pozzovivo (AG2R La Mondiale), with Dan Martin (Cannondale-Garmin) and Contador just behind had it not been for the opening stage gambit, where the teams of the sprinters and GC favourites took too long to begin chasing down the three-man breakaway. Whether or not gaining 21 seconds is beyond his grasp remains to be seen. You can read more at Cyclingnews.com

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