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Canada’s Michael Woods wins a career hat trick of Vuelta a España stages

Canada's Michael Woods wins a career hat trick of Vuelta a España stages

The breakaways just keep prevailing at the 2024 Vuelta a España, and Friday’s win distinguished itself by belonging to one Michael Woods, clad in the Canadian national champion’s jersey, who earned his third career Vuelta stage triumph. Woods also took stages in 2018 and 2020. He’s the first Canadian to win a Grand Tour hat trick. Woods has now won four total Grand Tour stages and two in two seasons. In the GC battle Primož Roglič put time into all his rivals including almost two minutes into red jersey Ben O’Connor.

Roglic pulled back nearly two minutes on O’Connor.

The Course

Four categorized climbs awaited the riders over 176 km from Lugo to Puerto de Ancares. Thursday’s Cat. 1 summit finish was mild in average grade, but Friday’s was not: Puerto de Ancares was 7.5 km of 9 percent, Roglič country.

Michael Woods couldn’t get into the breakaway on Thursday, but on Friday he was in a mob that bounced away early. Woods was the second-best placed on GC after José Félix Parra. The 23-strong gang contained several usual suspects like Jay Vine, Marc Soler and green jersey and triple stage winner Wout van Aert, the latter of whom grabbed the virtual KOM lead from Adam Yates by topping Cat. 3 Alto Campo de Arbre and Cat. 2 Alto O Portelo first.

With 100 km to go, the fugitive group was 12 minutes ahead of the peloton. Van Aert and a couple of other fellows flew the coop on the way to Cat. 2 Puerto de Lumeras and this move swelled with Woods, Soler, Vine and others. Van Aert bolstered his considerable green jersey lead by winning the Sésamo intermediate sprint. Seemingly insatiable on Friday, van Aert gobbled up the KOM points atop Puerto de Lumeras. Twenty kilometers remained.

One of the fugitives, the first red jersey Brandon McNulty, crashed on the descent and slid under the barrier and into the bushes. He needed help to get back on the road.

Jay Vine, who also crashed, waits for teammate McNulty to be helped back on the road.

On Puerto de Ancares, the Woods-van Aert group kept intact with no attacks until 5.2 km to go. Mauro…

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