The final battle. 140 kms are left in the race, but those 140 kms includes 4 climbs, but one of them shines above all of them. Alto de L’Angliru. A monster climb that has been important a lot of times in the past years in this race, but for the first time ever La Vuelta finishes in the top of this climb, so today we are going to see an historic stage, as three riders are still in contention for the GC win.
Silvio Herklotz is just 140 kms away from winning the first Grand Tour of his career in what is basically his first attempt since he’s a GC rider. 5 stage wins already in the race, having also secured the win in the Points standings, and having almost a one-hour lead in the U25 standings. The 24-year-old German hasn’t show any weaknesses during the race, and the only day he wasn’t the strongest (or someone was clearly stronger than him), was in the finish in Lujar.
Taylor Phinney is 46 seconds behind in the GC, sitting in second place. 5 years have passed since the American rider won his only Grand Tour so far in his career, when he won Il Giro in 2013. Runner-up last season in Le Tour, which he’s skipping this year to be here, he has a surprising lack of stage wins in this race, as he only won the 60-km TT which gave him the race lead for several days, before losing it in Lujar. Given that he always lost time in each mountain stage that finished in a climb, his odds to win the race aren’t the best.
Angel Madrazo is the final rider with chances to win the race. The home hero has 2’09 to make up in the steep slopes of Angliru, if he wants to win La Vuelta for the second time in his career (2012) and his first Grand Tour since 2013, when he won Le Tour. Only one stage win in the race, and it was surprisingly in a hilly stage. He took the lead with a great day in Lujar, but he has also lost time in every other stage, despite being on paper the strongest climber in the race. Born in Santander, not too far from Angliru, the crowd will cheer for him, hoping that he can beat the odds and become the first Spanish Grand Tour winner in 4 years!
There are more battles for lower GC places, like Martin and Kritskiy separated by 46 seconds in the battle for fourth; Alarcon, Marquez and Intxausti all in 1 second in the battle for ninth or Abal and Barguil in 1 second in the battle for 12th, but the main focus is the battle for the GC win.
Who will be wearing the Red Jersey at the end of the day? 140 kms left to know it
Six riders didn’t want to watch the GC battle from the bunch, but wanted to be ahead of it. And KoM winner Jose Alarcon, who is also 9th in GC, is on the breakaway. It’s really surprising given that he’s already won the KoM jersey, he has already won a stage and that he has now a Top10 spot to defend. I expect teams like Desigual, Berg or Minions to get nervious during the stage
The other 5 riders in the breakaway are:
Bayly
Vosekalns
Van der Hugenhaben
Figuereido
Novikov
Alarcon is still fighting for every point in every climb despite having won the jersey already. Vosekalns tried to sprint with the Venezuelan in a Cat.3 climb with 95 kms to go, but Alarcon beated him easily
Alto de la Cabruñana - Cat.3
Alarcon 6
Vosekalns 4
Van der Hugenhaben 2
The breakaway only has a 2-minute gap, as Puma seems to not like this group, or more likely, Alarcon in there
I don’t see any reason to do what is doing in the second climb of the day, Alto del Tenebredo. It’s a short but really steep climb, and the Venezuelan attacked and reached the summit more than 1 minute ahead of the rest of the breakaway, who obviously aren’t interested in wasting energies like Alarcon is doing
Alto del Tenebredo - Cat.2
Alarcon 10
Novikov 8
Vosekalns 6
Figuereido 4
Van der Hugenhaben 2
That’s a puncture for Michel Koch, who sits in 25th place in GC, with only 10 kms before Alto del Cordal, the penultimate climb of the day. And unless his team stops someone to help him, he’ll be losing a lot of time in this valley that leads to Cordal
Puma has all their riders in the first places of the group, making sure that the gap to the breakaway doesn’t grow more, as it looks like the breakaway will start Alto del Cordal, a climb with 5,5 kms at 9%, with a bit more than 2 minutes over the bunch, to where Koch isn’t coming back
Bayly is dropped from the breakaway with still 3 kms to the top of Cordal, while Dunne is setting a high pace in the bunch right now, which still has 150 riders on it
Alarcon is dropping all the breakaway riders one by one. First it was Van der Hugenhaben, then Figuereido, and finally Vosekalns and Novikov. We can’t assure that he isn’t going for the points in this climb, but he might continue his attack given the short gap he has to the bunch, and that there will be only 20 kms left when he reaches the summit of Cordal
Alarcon passed first obviously by the top of Cordal, and amazingly, he seems to be waiting for Vosekalns and Novikov, who are already one minute behind. A very stupid thing to do, even if the gap with the bunch has rised a lot, to 5’30 in the top the climb, as Puma slowed down a lot in the final 2 kms of Cordal
Alto del Cordal - Cat.1
Alarcon 16
Novikov 12
Vosekalns 10
Figuereido 8
Van der Hugenhaben 6
Bayly 4
Nerz 2
Only 11 kms for Alarcon, who is starting right now Alto de L’Angliru. Finally the rest of the breakaway wasn’t able to catch him in the descent, and the important gap is to the leader’s group, and it’s almost 5 minutes
Nerz and Arndt are entering the first slopes of Angliru, and they are going to make a big selection in this group. Madrazo and Phinney are both well placed in Herklotz’s wheel, so the big showdown can start already. Btw, these riders have 11 kms left, and the gap to Alarcon is 4’10 now
The group hasn’t even arrived to the hardest kilometres of Angliru, and 13 riders are opening a gap to a 30-rider group, as Arndt and Nerz keep pushing really hard, which has seen Alarcon’s gap reduced to just 3’08 with 8,5 kms to go
Arndt, Nerz, Herklotz, Madrazo, Phinney, Kritskiy, Tenorio, Martin, Intxausti, Abal, Barguil, Uran and Marquez ahead
And Cattaneo already losing time like Keinath, Schelling, Quintana, Olivier or Eastman
The final 7 kms of the climb are all above 10%, and that’s the zone that Alarcon is entering right now. His advantage to the GC riders is melting down really quickly, so the hopes of getting a second consecutive stage win are disappearing. But he could be winning a place in GC if Cattaneo keeps struggling to follow the pace behind
The leader’s group has already opened a gap of 1 minute to Cattaneo, who as everyone in that group, is struggling a lot. Van der Hugenhaben has already been caught, and stays in the middle of the group, while Figuereido and Vosekalns are about to get caught
And the position of Van der Hugenhaben in that group was very dangerous, as it was clearly visible that when a 16% slope came, he exploded and the 3 GC contenders broke free with Nerz and Arndt. A bit of slow down before chasing them allowed Cattaneo’s group to come back
5 kms to finish the race and Alarcon still holds a 2-minute gap to the Puma riders, with Novikov still in the middle, 1’20 behind him. There has to be a moment when Madrazo tries a desperate attack, given he has to gain 2 minutes on Herklotz, while Phinney could save that attack for a closer distance, but Arndt and Nerz still there and setting that high pace...
Cattaneo, Abal and Schelling get dropped for good of the very reduced favourites group, of which Arndt keeps pulling, once Nerz seems to be dropping down the order. The gap to Alarcon seems to have stabilized, but the attacks of Phinney or Madrazo are yet to come
Arndt suddenly stops pacing with 4,5 kms to go, and there goes Madrazo!!
And it’s Phinney trying to close the gap to Madrazo, while Herklotz sits ¿comfortably? on his wheel, but the attack of Madrazo is really tough. Only Tenorio is trying to follow in the distance, but it looks like the rest are settleling with what they have, or at least they’ll fight it once the Red Jersey battle is way ahead of them
Madrazo can’t keep that attack forever, and he stopped looking at Phinney to colaborate, but in that moment Herklotz saw his chance, and went for it with less than 4 kms to go. Why bother following these guys when you can attack yourself and win the stage?
Herklotz is about to catch Alarcon, while Madrazo seems to be pacing himself once he knows he has no chance to win the race. And then we hear the sound of the “explosion” of Taylor Phinney, who accelerated trying to follow Herklotz, but he has nothing else in the tank, so the American has to give up in his dream of winning this race
Only 2,5 kms to the top of Angliru, and Herklotz has finally arrived at Alarcon’s wheel. But the German doesn’t want to stop there. He’s going to win La Vuelta, but he also wants to win in the top of Angliru, for the sixth time in the race
Madrazo is dropping a “dead” Phinney, and now we could see a fight for who will be second in the GC, as Madrazo is 1’23 behind Phinney in GC, so he has a chance
Alarcon gives up too with 2,1 kms left in the race, and Herklotz quickly opens a gap to him. Also, he’s already gaining 1 minute on Madrazo, 15 further seconds on Phinney, and over 1’30 to Martin, Kritskiy and Tenorio
Phinney is struggling a lot, and is falling into the clutches of Martin’s group. The Irish rider is looking solid, with Kritskiy on his wheel. The Russian hasn’t tried anything yet to get that fourth place in GC, but they still have over 2 kms to go.
Good pacing of Madrazo, who is catching Alarcon with more than 1,5 kms left, looking to get the second place in the stage, and those 4 extra bonus seconds. And with the current gap to Phinney being 38 seconds, it’s likely that Madrazo will overtake the American in the battle for the second place in GC
Meanwhile, Silvio Herklotz is entering the final km of Angliru, a climb that is going to crown him as the 2018 Vuelta a España winner
Madrazo catches Alarcon in the same moment that Phinney is caught by Martin’s group. The gap between them is 42 seconds. Madrazo needs another 30 seconds to take that second place from Phinney
Early celebrations for Silvio Herklotz, who wins his sixth stage in this edition of La Vuelta, after an stunning team performance up L’Angliru, and efectively becomes the winner of 2018 Vuelta a España!
The gap between the two chasing group is going down, thanks to Kritskiy’s effort. But obviously Phinney has to finish in this group to get the second place in GC
Madrazo sprints to get the second place in the stage and also trying to open a bigger gap to Phinney. He has finished almost 2’30 after Herklotz. At least the Spaniard gave his all today, but his performance hasn’t been the best, not even close to his best
Third place in the stage for Alarcon, who will rise to eighth in GC for sure, overtaking Cattaneo, and will have to wait for Uran to cross the line to know whether he climbs another spot or not
Phinney can’t sprint when Kritskiy, Tenorio and Martin does, but he looks to have the gap controlled to finish second in GC. We’ll confirm it when he crosses the line
Kritskiy wins the sprint for fourth, 3’03 behind Herklotz. He’ll finish fifth in GC, as he could not win the time needed on Dan Martin to get the fourth place
Dan Martin and Justo Tenorio get the same time as Kritskiy in the stage, and will finish fourth and sixth in GC
+ 3’21 for Phinney, who holds on that second place in GC by only 18 seconds over Madrazo. At the end he’ll finish the race 4’27 behind Herklotz
+ 4’05 for Uran, Intxausti and Abal. The Colombian manages to keep his seventh place in GC, not a bad result for a wildcard team like Minions, but he has really Zubeldia’d his way to that spot.
Intxausti climbs to ninth in GC, while Abal does the same to get 12th
Barguil and Marquez lost the battle for their GC spot against the Spaniards in the group ahead, and will finish 13th and 11th in GC, while Arndt is in this group in the finish after doing an incredible job helping Herklotz today. And he gets really close to the GC Top20 with this performance
Schelling finishes 17th in GC, while Novikov’s effort today makes him finish inside Top50
+ 6’40 for Cattaneo who saves a Top10 spot despite this horrible day by less than 40 seconds to Marquez. Yet another Puma rider in this group with Nerz, who gets a Top25 in GC, with Haig also in this group, who could have finished in the GC Top20 if not for yesterday’s messed up tactic
Tears of joy for Puma’s manager when Silvio Herklotz steps into the podium to receive his trophy as the winner of the final stage. What an exhibition the young German has done this race. GC win by 4 minutes, Points jersey, U25 jersey, 6 stage wins, 3 more stage podiums and key part of Puma’s Team standings win
So this is it. La Vuelta is over with Silvio Herklotz dominating the race and winning everything he could have won
