After 13 stages defrocked of his red jersey, Primož Roglič finally took it back from Ben O’Connor, as the Slovenian earned his third stage victory of the 79th Vuelta a España. Roglič now leads O’Connor by 1:54, while Enric Mas is +2:20. Red Bull’s man is well poised to claim his fourth Vuelta title.
The Course
The first of three consecutive GC skirmish days to end the 79th Vuelta a España, Friday wasn’t as daunting as Saturday, but still had a Cat. 1 summit finish, 8.6-km, 8.9 percent Alto de Moncalvillo.
Alto de Moncalvillo on the menu of today’s #LaVuelta24 stage 19, one of the race’s toughest climbs. pic.twitter.com/wE9G8LUTvH
— Soudal Quick-Step Pro Cycling Team (@soudalquickstep) September 6, 2024
After a few failed breakaways, a brave quintet finally dashed away, and reached Cat. 3 Puerto de Pradilla in the middle of the 173-km route 3:30 ahead of the peloton. Red Bull and Movistar really had their tails up on Friday, and coming off the Cat. 3 their work split the peloton, something Lidl-Trek had to remedy. After losing one member on the way to Alto de Moncalvillo, the breakaway seemed doomed to submit on the slopes.
The Summit Finish
The fugitives’ gap was negligible by the start of Alto de Moncalvillo. Red Bull put the hammer down and riders started to drop away. With 5.8 km to climb, Dani Martinez, Alexandr Vlasov and their leader Roglič opened up a gap on everyone else. Fourth place Richard Carapaz tried to close the gap before fifth place David Gaudu tried to bridge.
Then Roglič was solo. All the other significant GC men couldn’t distance each other for a couple of kilometres until Mas managed to fly the nest. While the Slovenian only had five seconds to make up on the Australian race leader, Mas had 1:25 to bring back.
O’Connor couldn’t hang with the Carapaz-Gaudu chase. Gaudu and Matthias Skjelmose overtook Enric Mas in the final 200 metres.
Saturday’s profile resembles a shark’s lower jawbone, with seven categorized climbs spread evenly over 172 km and a summit finish atop Picón Blanco.
2024 Vuelta a España Stage 19
1) Primož Roglič (Slovenia/Red Bull) 3:54:55
2) David Gaudu (France/Groupama-FDJ) +0:46
3) Matthias Skjelmose (Denmark/Lidl-Trek) s.t.
2024 Vuelta a España GC
1) Primož Roglič (Slovenia/Red Bull) 76:43:36
2) Ben O’Connor (Australian/Decathlon-AG2R) +1:54
3) Enric Mas (Spain/Movistar) +2:20
4) Richard Carapaz (Ecuador/EF Education-Easypost) +2:54
5)…
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