The Italian gained one place in the standings after the toughest climb of this edition.
Halloween was Saturday, but the cruel monster everyone fears – including a 151-man group roaming Spain these weeks – made its appearance twenty-four hours later, when for just the eighth time in history it decided to show the entire world what it’s capable of. Alto de l’Angliru, because this is the beast’s name, featured at the end of a short 109.4km stage that set out from La Pola Llaviana and contained four other classified climbs.
Deceuninck – Quick-Step’s Mattia Cattaneo wasn’t scared of what rested ahead, so he immediately got infiltrated in a twenty-man breakaway that somehow managed to put a maximum gap of three minutes between them and a red jersey group keen on fighting for victory on the ultra-steep Angliru.
On the first-category Alto del Cordal, a major selection took place at the front, leaving only three riders in the lead, one of whom was the 30-year-old from Alzano Lombardo. Cattaneo continued to push ahead in the valley, together with his companions stretching out their lead to 40 seconds by the time they started Angliru (12.4km, 9.9%). Three kilometers into the climb, the reduced bunch caught the trio, but Mattia continued to put in a valiant ride which saw him stay with the best until six kilometers from the top.
Dropped by the ruthless pace on the double-digit gradients of the mythical Asturian ascent, the Italian rode his own tempo to the top, ignoring the pain on the 23% maximum slopes and concluding his effort on this gargantuan climb a couple of minutes down on the winner Hugh Carthy (EF Pro Cycling), a result that lifted him one place in the general classification with six days to go.
“I felt good today, so decided to go in the break hoping it would have a chance of making it, but the GC teams had different plans and chased hard, bringing us back on the final climb. Despite this, I am satisfied with this stage, because for me it was important to be at the front and climb so well, especially as just one month ago my season looked to be over. My confidence is on an upward trajectory and we’ll keep fighting until the end for some more strong results”, Mattia said ahead of the race’s last rest day.
Photo credit: ©David Ramos / Getty Images
