The brutal summit finish at Puerto de Ancares saw Michael Woods (Premier Tech) fly to victory and Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) open significant gaps to his GC rivals. At 37 years old, the Canadian climber got the better of his breakaway companions to take his 4th Grand Tour stage win, the 3rd in La Vuelta, a year after he tamed the brutal slopes up Puy-de-Dôme in the Tour de France.
In the GC group, Roglic put pressure on all his rivals and especially Ben O’Connor (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), who lost almost 2 minutes. The Australian retains La Roja, with a lead of 1’21’’ to the Slovenian star and 3’01’’ to Enric Mas (Movistar), who also lost 58’’ to Roglic.
La Vuelta 24 is in Galicia for a fourth and last day, although today’s stage also passes by Castilla-y-Leon. Puerto de Ancares is on the border between the province of Lugo (Galicia) and the province of Leon (Castilla-y-Leon). The different climbs of the day add up to a total of 3,420m of elevation.
A massive breakaway: Van Aert, Soler, Groves…
In line with the frantic action of the last few days, the attackers initiate a fierce battle from the gun.
Kasper Asgreen (T-Rex Quick-Step), Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Victor Campenaerts, Sylvain Moniquet (Lotto Dstny), Mauro Schmid (Jayco AlUla), Simon Guglielmi, Mathis Le Berre (Arké-B&B Hotels), Enzo Leijnse (DSM-Firmenich-PostNL) and Ruben Fernandez (Cofidis) lead the way.
Marc Soler, Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates), Kim Heiduk (Ineos Grenadiers), (DSM-Firmenich-PostNL), José Felix Parra (Kern Pharma), Nicolas Vinokourov (Astana Qazaqstan) and Xabier Isasa (Euskatel-Euskadi) are the first to join them, and they’re quickly followed by Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bika) and Luca Vergallito (Alpecin-Deceuninck).
Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates), Sam Oomen (Lidl-Trek), Michael Woods, Dylan Teuns (Premier Tech), Gijs Leemreize (DSM-Firmenich-PostNL), Mikel Bizkarra and Xabier Isasa (Euskaltel-Euskadi) eventually make it a 24-man breakaway. But Isasa is quickly dropped.
Van Aert on the hunt for the polka dots
With no threat for La Roja in the breakaway, Ben O’Connor’s Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale set the pace in the bunch and the gap goes up to 16’50’’ when Enric Mas’ Movistar react, after 130km.
Meanwhile, Wout van Aert, already wearing the green jersey as the leader of the points standings, chases the KOM points atop the first ascents of the day, the cat-3 Alto Campo de Arbre (km 33.9) and the cat-2 Alto O Portelo (km 75.2).
The breakaway riders start attacking each other into the last 50 kilometres. The group explodes. Van Aert, Vine, McNulty, Soler, Asgreen, Oomen, Woods, Schmid and Leemreize are together at the bottom of the cat-2 Puerto de Lumeras. Again, Van Aert goes first at the summit (km 155.6).
Woods and Roglic fly away
Vine and McNulty suffer a nasty crash on the downhill. Both of them get back up but they’re out of contention for the stage win. Van Aert, Soler, Oomen, Woods and Schmid are set to battle it out on the final ascent.
Schmid sets off with 5km to go. Woods is on his wheel. And the Canadian goes solo 500 metres later.
In the GC group, Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe up the pace and O’Connor is dropped with around 4 kilometres to go. Roglic takes matters in his own hands and eventually gains 35’’ on Mikel Landa (T-Rex Quick-Step), 38’’ on Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek), 44’’ on Carlos Rodriguez (Ineos Grenadiers) and David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ), 58’’ on Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) and Enric Mas (Movistar)… and 1’55’’ on Ben O’Connor, who retains La Roja for 1’21’’. – www.lavuelta.es
