The stage of the International Cycling Union (UCI) WorldTour race saw riders faced with a 188 kilometre route from Puigcerdà to Sant Cugat del Vallès.

Schachmann would feature in a four rider group, which included The Netherlands' Bert-Jan Lindeman, United States' Tejay Van Garderen and Costa Rica's Andrey Amador.

The route featured several early climbs, but had several lengthy downhill sections which aided the breakaway in their attempts to stay clear.

The quartet held a lead of nearly one minute over the main field with around 10km left to race, with the ever-decreasing advantage prompting Schachmann to launch a solo bid for victory.

The Bora-Hansgrohe rider was rewarded for his effort as he held on to claim the stage win in a time of 4 hours, 25min and 45sec.

A bunch sprint followed the peloton, with Australia's Michael Matthews ending second at 13 seconds down.

The stage had little baring on the general classification as Colombia's Miguel Angel Lopez still leads overall.

The Astana Pro Team rider has a 14 second lead over Britain's Adam Yates, while Colombia's Egan Bernal is a further three seconds down.

Tomorrow's stage will see riders travel 169km from Valls to Vila-Seca, before the 143km final stage on Sunday (March 31) in Barcelona.

The E3 BinckBank Classic, another WorldTour race, also took place today.

The one-day race saw the peloton tackle a 203km route at Flanders in Belgium, featuring 15 categorised climbs.

Czech Republic's Zdenek Stybar triumphed from a six-man group at the close of the race, having benefited from excellent work from his Deceuninck-QuickStep team-mate Bob Jungels of Luxembourg.

Stybar proved the fastest of the finishers as the Czech rider won a reduced sprint to triumph in 4:46.05.

Belgium's Wout van Aert and Greg van Avermaet completed the top three on the same time as the winner.