Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) retook control of the red jersey at the Vuelta a España on Friday, soaring to victory on stage 19 atop the Alto de Moncalvillo and overhauling Ben O’Connor (AG2R-Decathlon) in the general classification.
The three-time Vuelta champ was led clear of his GC rivals by an imperious Red Bull train on the day’s final climb, and then he pressed on solo to win the stage. David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) took runner-up honors 46 seconds later just ahead of Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek), while O’Connor finished 1:49 down on the day, at last giving up the race lead two weeks after his red jersey raid from the breakaway back on stage 6.
With just two stages left to race, Roglič now leads O’Connor in the GC standings by 1:54, with Movistar’s Enric Mas sitting in third at 2:20 back.
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How it happened
- The 173.5 km stage from Logroño featured yet another high-octane start. An hour-long battle to form the early breakaway raged as the race rolled through Rioja, Spain’s most famous wine region. The move of the day eventually comprised five riders, with rising star Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates) among them. In contrast to the way things have played out on most of the Vuelta’s mountain stages over the past two weeks, however, the peloton did not want to let this break stay clear.
- The gap grew to about four minutes before Red Bull hit the front and started reeling the escapees back in, and the catch was ultimately made on the run-in to the Cat. 1 finishing climb with a little over 10 km to go.
- Red Bull set a torrid pace on the lower slopes of the climb, whittling down the bunch. Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) was the next rider behind Roglič in the rapidly shrinking GC group, until, with around 6 km to go, he lost touch with Roglič’s wheel. Suddenly, the Slovenian and his lieutenants Daniel Martínez and Aleksandr Vlasov had a gap, and they quickly pressed their advantage.
- Before long, Roglič went solo ahead of his teammates, who then dropped back, their jobs done for the day. The other GC riders were somewhat disorganized in their effort to chase, with Mas eventually attempting – unsuccessfully – to bridge to Roglič on his own. Roglič crossed the line with no one else in view, while Mas was ultimately passed by Gaudu and then Skjelmose on the finishing straight.
I said I don’t need the stage but … I won’t say their names but some guys decided, ‘We won’t listen to you and we’ll pull.’ We had nothing else to do, we had to make a call, we had to all be on the same side, and then we went for it.
—Primož Roglič on Red Bull’s stage 19 tactics
Brief analysis
- Roglič may not have wanted the stage for himself, but his team sure seemed interested in setting him up for the final climb, doing work to catch the early break and then really putting the hammer down when the road angled upward. At the start of this Vuelta, UAE looked to have the strongest squad in the race, but Red Bull really showed their collective firepower on stage 19.
- O’Connor’s stint in red finally came to an end on stage 19 as the gradients and Red Bull’s pace proved too great a challenge for him to overcome. That was, frankly, hardly a surprise, as Roglič has been the clear bookies’ favorite for several days now. That said, O’Connor deserves credit for the way he has managed to stay in the fight. At no point has he fully collapsed in the mountains, and even now that he has given up the race lead, he remains very much in contention for the GC podium.
- Over the past few mountain stages, Mas had looked slightly stronger than Roglič, giving the home crowd at least a glimmer of hope that he might take some time on Roglič in the final mountain stages – but Roglič was clearly the strongest rider in the race on Friday. Mas hardly made a dent in Roglič’s gap when he attempted to ride up to him, and now he has more than two minutes to make up in the GC. Stage 20 will give him one last chance to use his talents on the climbs, but Roglič has the clear edge in the final time trial.
Up next
Stage 20, the final mountain stage of the Vuelta, is a doozy, with seven categorized climbs in full. The last one at Picón Blanco has the gradients to force a major selection, and the climbers should be motivated to make something happen with a very un-climber-friendly TT looming.
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