You have to wonder which WorldTeam is going to sign Pablo Castrillo from ProTeam Equipo Kern Pharma before 2025. For the second time in four days, the 23-year-old Spaniard won a Vuelta a España mountain stage from a breakaway. Castrillo battled with Alexandr Vlasov in slow motion on the brutal slopes of HC-rated Cuitu Negru. Ben O’Connor, despite losing 38 seconds to Primož Roglič, still leads the race before the final rest day. Michael Woods placed 76th and remains in the GC top-25.
The Course
Sunday was short in distance but long on climbs, with Cat. 1 Alto de la Colladiella assailed twice with a Cat. 3 in between. The summit finish up to ski resort Cuitu Negru wasn’t exactly Tuesday’s Lagos de Covadonga, but it wasn’t far off. Hiding in the stats of 18.9 km of 7.1 percent was the fact that the final 2.8 kilometers averaged 13.2 percent. Venga!
This is what the riders will be taking on today at #LaVuelta24.
The inhuman ramps of the Asturias are back. pic.twitter.com/v15rN3YNut
— Soudal Quick-Step Pro Cycling Team (@soudalquickstep) September 1, 2024
The action was hot from the gun in Infiesto, with multiple attacks and a shredded peloton. After the first climb of Alto de la Colladiella where Jay Vine snagged the maximum KOM points, he was in a leading octet forty seconds clear of a 25-strong red jersey group.
Before the Cat. 3 Alto de Santo Emiliano the situation changed: now seventeen fellows were a minute ahead of the peloton. Vine scored points again, getting closer to Wout van Aert at the top of the classification. As the gang headed up Alto de la Colladiella for the second time, EF Education-Easypost and “T-Rex” worked at the front of the peloton. By cresting first, Vine tied van Aert on points.
If the red jersey group wanted to win Sunday, it had 54 km to make up 2:30. Mikel Landa’s T-Rex continued to toil at the front. By the time Cuitu Negru proper began, Vine’s septet had 3:00 on the peloton. O’Connor already looked in trouble because his main man, eighth place Felix Gall, wasn’t in the bunch. For the second day in a row, Roglič had a mechanical at a vulnerable time in the race.
Vine was jettisoned from the breakaway, but the gap didn’t budge on the lower slopes as Landa’s crew carried on. The escape got smaller and smaller but Roglič still had a satellite rider up…
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