Richard Carapaz (Ineos Grenadiers) climbed to victory on stage 14 of the Vuelta a España, beating his fellow breakaways and holding off a ferocious chase from Primož Roglič on Sierra de la Pandera.
It’s his second stage win of the race, coming 48 hours after his triumph at Peñas Blancas.
The Olympic champion had to fight all the way to the line for it, as the race burst into life behind him halfway up the day’s final climb.
With four kilometres to go, Roglič attacked and rode away. The Slovenian looked resurgent and was later joined by Miguel Ángel López (Astana Qazaqstan Team), who outsprinted him for second place, eight seconds down.
Race leader Remco Evenepoel cracked soon after the attack, showing his first significant signs of weakness in this year’s race. He ultimately lost 48 seconds to his Jumbo-Visma rival, who set the pace up the climb.
He leads Roglič by 1:49 with a tough stage in the mountains tomorrow to Sierra Nevada. The battle for Vuelta victory is most definitely on.
HOW IT HAPPENED
Stage fourteen of the Vuelta headed south-east on a 160-kilometre route between Montoro and the punishing Sierra de la Pandera, a first-category climb of 8.6km at 7.5 percent average.
Happily, there were no morning abandons due to COVID-19. Soon-to-be-retired Vincenzo Nibali was the first rider to attack in an animated opening third of the racing. The bunch split due to crosswinds, with UAE Team Emirates briefly caught on the wrong side, before reforming. The average speed in the stage’s second hour was a scorching 52km/h.
Several moves by Thomas De Gendt were brought to heel, before Yevgeniy Fedorov (Astana Qazaqstan) and Sergio Higuita (Bora-Hansgrohe) instigated the key move. The Colombian was only up front for a couple of kilometres before crashing out of it.
Following a couple of counter-attacks, a ten-man move came together, involving Fedorov, Richard Carapaz (Ineos Grenadiers), Alexey Lutsenko (Astana Qazaqstan), Clément Champoussin (Citroën-AG2R), Luis León Sánchez (Bahrain-Victorious), Bruno Amirail (Groupama-FDJ), Marco Brenner (Team DSM), Filippo Conca (Lotto Soudal), Raúl García (Equipo Kern Pharma) and Trek-Segafredo pair Kenny Elissonde and points jersey leader Mads Pedersen.
The gap went out to over four minutes, with moustachioed Rémi Cavagna setting a steady tempo for his leader Remco Evenepoel behind.
In Jaén, 33 kilometres from the finish, Pedersen led through the intermediate sprint uncontested to extend his emphatic lead in…