Saturday’s penultimate stage of the 2024 Vuelta a España was the final road stage, and Eddie Dunbar became the fifth rider to take multiple wins. There wasn’t much movement in the GC top 10, but Primož Roglič has one hand on the trophy, leading Ben O’Connor by 2:02 with only Sunday’s time trial finale to come.
The Course
Saturday’s profile for the final road stage resembled a shark’s lower jawbone, with seven categorized climbs spread evenly over 172 km and a summit finish atop Picón Blanco.
One of the toughest Grand Tour stages of the season, on the penultimate day of #LaVuelta24: 172 kilometers and seven classified climbs from Villarcayo to Picon Blanco. pic.twitter.com/e6MvGaB72o
— Soudal Quick-Step Pro Cycling Team (@soudalquickstep) September 7, 2024
The profile was sure to elicit a breakaway. Before the first time, with Roglič’s main main Aleksandr Vlasov already suffering at the back of the peloton, a group busted loose. Interestingly, it contained the top two guys in the KOM classification, UAE-Emirates’ Marc Soler and Jay Vine. Vine would take over the lead on Cat. 3’s Las Estacas de Trueba and Puerto de la Braguía.
With Ineos doing the pace-making in the peloton, Vlasov was finally dropped. Up ahead, Vine scored again on Cat. 2 Alto de El Caracol. Soler trailed his teammate by six points. Hard on the heels of El Caracol was Cat. 1 Portillo de Lunada. Soler obviously wanted to win the title; he had attacked on El Caracol, and at the foot of Portillo de Lunada, he went again.
Behind, yet another team, Soudal-QuickStep, was the engine at the front of the peloton train. More bad news for Roglič was teammate Dani Martinez abandoning the race. Soler had company in the pesky Vine and Clément Berthet until he lit out on his own, taking 10 points to Vine’s 6. The gap was narrowed to two.
Next up was Cat. 2 Puerto de la Sía. Soler insisted on solitude. With two Cat. 1 ascents remaining, the score was Soler 76, Vine 76. Game on!
Soler skittered downhill towards the foot of the penultimate climb of the 79th edition, Puerto de los Tornos. The peloton was within 2:00 with the Vine chase in between. Soler’s average descending skills doomed him to company before Puerto de los Tornos. Soler, Vine, Berthet, double stage winner Pablo Castrillo and Marco Frigo started the ascent 1:30 ahead of the red jersey group. Two other Red Bull riders, Nico Denz and…
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