Big mountain stage coming up in Andorra! After the final flat stage of the race, won by Lilian Calmejane from the breakaway, denying Swift his fourth stage win in the race, the race starts its final phase, and the riders won’t get a rest until the very last day.
Today’s stage has 162 kms, starting from Baga. Very early in the stage we enter Andorran roads, with the first climb of the day being a monster climb like Envalira, totally worthy of its Cat.1 rating. 27 kms at 5%, which summit is over 2400 metres of alttitude. In the final 40 kms of the stage there are two Cat.2 climbs, Col de Ordino and Alto de la Comella. But the stage isn’t finished yet, as there’s the climb to Collada de la Gallina to finish the day, with 7 kms at 8%. A stage that should be really hard and could make huge differences between riders in a good day and riders in a bad day. And with three riders within 33 seconds in the three first places in GC, any of them could get the Red Jersey at the end of the stage
Kinda strange move by Tratnik, as he puts a high pace in the first kms of the stage, as it starts with a non-categorised climb, which means that a lot of sprinter get dropped from the very start of the stage
Bayly and Egger are the first two riders to attack today, once Tratnik stops pacing at such a high pace. And when Swift got dropped, the entire Aegon squad waited for him, including 15th GC Olivier. They would back in the bunch very soon, but that’s a weird call from the Aegon’s car
Next ones to attack are Stetina and Galta. The Norwegian is fighting for the KoM jersey, being tied to second on this classification, and today can be a big source of points for that jersey, with his main rival Alarcon not in the breakaway at the moment
But that would quickly change, as Alarcon realise that he’s missing on the KoM jersey fight and attack together with Destribois, the big surprise in the Tarazona TT a couple of days back
Egger won last year the KoM in La Vuelta, and wants to defend that title, as he surprises the big favourites in the breakaway to take the big points in Alto de Envalira, the first climb of the day. The gap to the bunch went up to 5 minutes in the top of Envalira, as Gazelle doesn’t want to run out of domestiques too soon
Alto de Envalira - Cat.1
Egger 16
Alarcon 12
Galta 10
Stetina 8
Destribois 6
Bayly 4
Reguigui 2
Reguigui attacked in the last kms of Envalira, trying to catch the breakaway. But probably his move comes too late, as he has over 4 minutes to catch up to them, and he’s not really getting away from the bunch, who is really close to him in the descent to Ordino
Alarcon and Galta prove to be the best climbers in the breakaway, and drop everyone else in Col d’Ordino, the second Cat.1 climb of the day. Gazelle has reduced their advantage to 3’30
Galta beats Alarcon in the top of Col d’Ordino, while Egger managed to stay with this duo as the climb easied in the final kms
Col d’Ordino - Cat.1
Galta 16
Alarcon 12
Egger 10
Destribois 8
Stetina 6
Bayly 4
Sosnitskiy 2
In the middle of the descent Kirsch punctures in the now 80-rider bunch
Final 20 kms for Alarcon and Galta, who keeps an advantage of 30 seconds over Destribois and Egger, and 30 further to Stetina. Bayly has been caught by the bunch, where Gazelle keeps setting the pace
And yet another climb where Alarcon misses out on the bigger points, as Galta beats him too in Alto de la Comella. The pace in the bunch is really high now, with Sosnitskiy and Karnulin giving their all, and the gap keeps been reducing, now to 3’30. And the leading duo doesn’t look like having too much energies for the final climb
Alto de la Comella - Cat.2
Galta 10
Alarcon 8
Destribois 6
Egger 4
Sosnitskiy 2
Egger is caught in the moment the bunch starts Collada de la Gallina, where the stage will finish. 7 kms at 8%. Destribois stays 30 seconds ahead of the bunch, but the important gap is to Alarcon and Galta, and it’s only 2’10 for then. Highly unlikely that the stage winner won’t come from one of the GC riders
Kritskiy goes first! The Russian opens the fire from the base of the climb, and Madrazo and Phinney try to follow that massive attack
Tenorio, Intxausti and Martin follow a few seconds behind (where is Herklotz?) but once Kritskiy finishes his attack, Phinney counter attacks and leaves both Madrazo and Kritskiy behind!
Only 4 kms to go, and Phinney is absolutely flying right now! He’s about to catch Galta and Alarcon, who are just spectators of the GC fight.
A group with 4 riders has been formed 15 seconds behind Phinney, with Kritskiy, Martin, Intxausti and race leader Madrazo, but we can see the Spanish rider struggling a bit, after the attack of Phinney was too much for him.
And 40 seconds further there’s the rest of GC contenders, with Herklotz surprisingly weak today so far, and still not in the wind, as Úran or Tenorio have been pulling from that group so far
One km later, the five best GC riders have catched and passed Alarcon and Galta, who are now in a group with Herklotz, Barguil, Cattaneo and Abal
In front, Dan Martin is struggling with Kritskiy’s high pace, and can’t really come back to the group
Martin finally came back to the leading group, where interestingly, Intxausti looks to the strongest right now. Herklotz is finally riding away from other riders, and is 25 seconds behind the leading group. 15 seconds behind him is Barguil, and 10 further behind are Tenorio, Abal and Cattaneo. And 30 seconds behind the rest, with Uran, Eastman, Keinath and more
Once again Herklotz playing the smartest strategy in a climb, and now seeing his gains in the final kms. Madrazo and Phinney are struggling and falling to the back of the leading group, which has now 8 riders, as also Barguil and Cattaneo arrived there
Herklotz keeps going full gas with 800 metres, and now only Martin and Kritskiy can follow! The German could take the race lead if the gaps to Madrazo and Phinney keep growing, as he’s only 33 behind the Spaniard, and now he has a gap of 20 to him!
500 metres! Kritskiy, Martin and Herklotz are going to fight for the stage win in Collada de la Gallina, and with the current gaps to Madrazo, Herklotz could take the race lead if he wins the stage. Madrazo and Phinney are getting a massive help by Barguil right now, as the Frenchman is pulling from their group, making the gap not to grow
The sprint starts with Herklotz in front! Martin looks to be fading, and there’s no much room for overtake right now...
...and Silvio Herklotz takes his third stage win in this edition of La Vuelta! What a masterclass by the German young star, who decided to stay away from the attacks at the start of the climb, and then catched up to the group on his own, without burning himself, and then wins a three-way sprint againt Kritskiy, who finishes second, and Martin, who again has a great performance in a mountain stage
+ 22 for Intxausti, who had a strong day to finish fourth.
It doesn’t look like Barguil or Cattaneo could close the gap to Intxausti, but if even if they did, Madrazo and Phinney are in risk of getting a gap to this duo too, as they cracked in the final 100 metres.
+ 1’04 for Schelling, who should get closer to a Top10 place
+ 1’15 for Abal, who finally has a decent day in this race, completing the Top10 of the stage
+ 1’30 for Marquez, Quintana and Keinath
+ 2’05 for Tenorio and Uran, the two biggest disappointments of the day
And we have a new race leader! Silvio Herklotz takes over the race lead, despite Madrazo being given the same time as Intxausti in a controversial decision, so his gap will be only 9 seconds over the Spanish rider and 17 over Taylor Phinney. A very tight race entering its final 5 stages
