It was a finish that suited Primož Roglič down to the ground – short, uneven and violently steep – and the stage 4-winner hit the foot of the climb with cool intent: to take back some of the time lost to Ben O’Connor on stage 6, and go after the stage victory to boot.
Roglič landed his first blow near the base of the Sierra de Cazorla (4.8 km at 7.2%; first kilometre 17.3%), and from there would not relent. O’Connor reacted well in the first half of the climb, but as soon as he began to struggle with the repeated accelerations, Roglič and Enric Mas (Movistar) were able to take advantage and ride away to the line, gathering up the last survivors of the breakaway as they went. Mas tried to play Roglič at his own game in the last few hundred metres, but Roglič’s explosiveness won the day.
O’Connor had the help of teammate Felix Gall for much of the climb, but ultimately the red jersey struggled home in 17th, losing 56 seconds (taking bonus seconds into account) and seeing his lead tumble to 3:49 over the stage winner. After another brilliant day on the bike, Mas moves up to third overall, taking the place of João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) whose jour sans – and the bad luck of being caught behind a crash – leaves him in 26th overall, one ahead of teammate Adam Yates.
How it happened
- The first 60 minutes of stage 8 marked the fastest first hour of the Vuelta so far as the world and his wife made a bid for the breakaway. And it was only at the end of that hour that the day’s first three escapees began to forge a gap, eventually joined by five more to make it an eight-man move.
- Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale then took control of the peloton and stabilised the gap at about four and a half minutes and the race calmed down on the way to the first major climb of the day.
- The Puerto Mirador de las Palomas (7.3km at 5.6%) was an opportunity to carve into the break’s advantage as the race entered the last 60 km, and it was on the steady second-category climb that Israel-Premier Tech joined the effort on the front and sliced over a minute from the gap.
- Israel-Premier Tech’s riders stayed on the front for almost the entire remainder of the stage, and it’s largely thanks to them that the breakaway was neutralised, though the day’s attackers had begun to break up and lose cohesion long before the stage arrived at its tipping point.
- There were just three left from the breakaway at the foot of the 4.8-kilometre final climb – a resurgent Oier Lazkano who’d had a fierce chase back on after the Cat.2, Harold Tejada and 2022 Zwift Academy winner Luca Vergallito in his debut Grand Tour – but their lead was just over a minute and the steepest gradients were ready to bite.
- The gap fell fast as Dani Felipe Martínez led the peloton onto the climb with Roglič on his wheel, and O’Connor on his.
- Positioning proved vital on that first kicker, as a mishap not far down the peloton caused a big crash that held up many GC riders, including Aleksandr Vlasov (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) and João Almeida who’d already been dangling on the back of the peloton on the run-in to the finale.
- With the gap brought down to almost 50 seconds, Martínez swung off and let loose his leader, but O’Connor reacted fast to grab hold of his rival’s wheel, Jefferson Cepeda and Richard Carapaz (EF Education-Easypost) also close at hand. Roglič eased off on looking over his shoulder, but he was not done yet.
- As a combined result of the gradients, the crash and Roglič’s acceleration, the red jersey group was briefly down to just nine riders, but with the gradients easing at the midway point, many more returned to contention, including Sepp Kuss (Visma-Lease a Bike) and O’Connor’s teammate Gall.
- Roglič made several more accelerations, a couple of which O’Connor responded to himself, then relied on Gall to help sew the group back together.
- Then, with two kilometres left of the climb, Roglič launched off Mas’s wheel, and only the Spaniard could follow.
- The pair rapidly caught and passed first Vergallito, then Tejada – who still managed to hang on for a top-10 result – in the final kilometre, where the gradients ramped up again.
- Mas then came through to the front and wove through the winding final turns, using the fastest possible racing line to hold off Roglič for as long as possible, but the Slovenian’s punch was too fierce for the Movistar man who had to settle for second.
- Mikel Landa (T-Rex-QuickStep) was best of the rest in third after a strong climb, and a resurgent Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain Victorious) tightened his hold on the white jersey in fourth, just ahead of his rival Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) who’d been held up at the base of the climb.
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Quote of the day
The opportunity was there, and I went for it. It was hard, hot. I was lucky – I had the legs to take it today. I’m going every day full racing, just see how I will respond to all of this input to my body after a hard period with my injury – I still feel it, so we’ll see.”
Roglič said at the finish, where he also took the polka-dot jersey.
Brief analysis
- Despite the time loss – and let’s face it, there’s not much that a teammate can do on a climb like that – Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale had a pretty decent day in looking after O’Connor’s lead, amassing on the front when it mattered, and staying close even when Israel-Premier Tech took over and lifted the pace. Then Felix Gall was instrumental on the Sierra de Cazorla, climbing back to the red jersey group to lend his legs to O’Connor. He might have saved his leader at least half a minute in those last few kilometres. The French team’s next big test comes as soon as Sunday and one of the hardest stages of the Vuelta.
- While Decathlon and Israel-Premier Tech both did a fair amount of work on stage 8, Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe were notably absent, but for Martínez’s one-kilometre effort on the final climb. In hindsight, especially after Mas’s great finish, it’s worth noting that Movistar had a great day, putting a great rider, though not a mountain domestique, into the breakaway to give everyone else a day off before stage 9. With 4,486 metres of climbing and three Cat.1 ascents in quick succession, it’s going to be a huge challenge for all the GC contenders.
- Having come into the Vuelta with two leaders in João Almeida and Adam Yates, who have both had one or several bad days, UAE Team Emirates now find themselves in the uncertain position of having their WorldTour and GrandTour debutant Isaac Del Toro as their best-placed rider in 17th overall, 6 minutes and 32 seconds down. Their second-best is Pavel Sivakov, who also lost time on this stage, slipping from 14th to 20th. Not all is lost, though, with two weeks left and abundant breakaway opportunities, not to mention their young Tour de l’Avenir winner who deserves the support should he hang in there in the high mountains to come.
Up next
The last stage before the first rest day will be a major test. The Puerto de El Purche and Alto de Hazallanas (which will be tackled twice) are very steep, and riders will have very little time to recover as they do three back-to-back-to-back climbing efforts. The stage win could go to a break or to someone who can attack the GC group and then shine on the descent into Granada.
Originally appeared in our stage-by-stage preview.
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