Three-time Vuelta a España champion Primoz Roglič made an audacious late attack that almost paid off with a substantial time gain on red jersey Remco Evenepoel, but he crashed within sight of the finish line in Tomares, paying a heavy price to take back only eight seconds. Green jersey Mads Pedersen joined Sam Bennett, Jay Vine and Richard Carapaz in the Brace of 2022 Vuelta a España Victories Club on Tuesday, cementing his points classification lead in the process.
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The Course
Tuesday’s fare was for the sprinters, as there were no classified climbs and only a couple of ripples near the end of 189.4 km.
The third and final week of #LaVuelta22 gets underway with a stage for the sprinters, between Sanlucar de Barrameda and Tomares, over 189.4 kilometers. pic.twitter.com/Jtc07cUcgk
— Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl Team (@qst_alphavinyl) September 6, 2022
Fitting the pattern of the stages last week, only two riders, chaps from Spanish wildcard teams, bothered to go out in the breakaway on such an obvious sprinter’s day. Cofidis and Trek-Segafredo did most of the pace-making in the peloton.
Everything was going to script, the intrepid Spanish duo sopped up with 14 km to go.
With 2.6 km to go Roglič attacked on a little uphill rise.
Pascal Ackermann was able to follow and as other riders were making their way over to the move, Evenepoel punctured, the Belgian protected by the 3 km rule. That was the Slovenian’s first bit of bad luck.
Roglič crashed after a touch of wheels with 100 metres to go. It left him dazed and bloodied. The commisaires decided that the Jumbo-Visma man had only eight seconds on Evenepoel when the latter flatted.
2022 Vuelta a España Stage 16
1) Mads Pedersen (Denmark/Trek-Segafredo) 4:45:29
2) Pascal Ackermann (Germany/UAE-Emirates) s.t.
3) Danny van Poppel (The Netherlands/Bora-Hansgrohe) s.t.
2022 Vuelta a España GC
1) Remco Evenepoel (Belgium/Quick Step-Alpha Vinyl) 61:26:26
2) Primož Roglič (Slovenia/Jumbo-Visma) +1:26
3) Enric Mas (Spain/Movistar) +2:01
4) Juan Ayuso (Spain/UAE-Emirates) +4:49
5) Carlos Rodriguez (Spain/Ineos) +5:16
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