La Vuelta: Landa upgrades his place after major GC shake-up

La Vuelta: Landa upgrades his place after major GC shake-up

Mikel Landa notched up his ninth Grand Tour stage podium on what was arguably the hardest finish of the Vuelta a España so far, Sierra de Cazorla – a 4.8km third-category climb irregular in gradient which featured punishing 20% slopes that poured lead into the riders’ legs and made for some important gaps.

Coming at the end of the short stage eight that started from Ubeda, the ascent immediately strung out an already depleted peloton, who was also split by a crash that held up several of the general classification favourites. T-Rex Quick-Step’s Mikel – who on Friday ticked off his 150th La Vuelta stage start – was one of the few to avoid the incident despite the pile-up happening just in front of him, and later found himself in a small three-man group that set out in pursuit of the remaining escapees.

In the final 1500 meters, the climb ramped up to double-digit gradients, and it was there that another selection took place. Pain etched on his face, teeth gritting, the 34-year-old Basque conjured up a valiant effort in the preposterously steep final kilometer of Sierra de Cazorla, overtaking the last member of the original breakaway to take third behind Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe), who captured the win.

“At the start of this race, I found it a bit difficult to get into the rhythm, but now I am feeling good. Today we had a hard final ascent, an explosive one, and as you could see some significant gaps were made on those tough slopes. Fortunately, I had good legs and felt quite strong, so I gave my best and I am happy with my third place. The Vuelta is still long and a lot of things can happen, but I have a lot of confidence after these first demanding climbs of the race and will continue to take it one day at a time”, explained Mikel, who is fifth overall ahead of the first week’s final stage.

 

Photo credit: ©Tim De Waele / Getty Images

Race details

1 Primož Roglič
Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe
3:38:34
2 Enric Mas Nicolau
Movistar Team
0:00
3 Mikel Landa Meana
Soudal Quick-Step
0:14
4 Antonio Tiberi
Bahrain - Victorious
0:17
5 Mattias Skjelmose Jensen
Lidl - Trek
0:21
6 Carlos Rodríguez Cano
INEOS Grenadiers
0:21
7 Harold Tejada Canacue
Astana Qazaqstan Team
0:24
8 Eddie Dunbar
Team Jayco AlUla
0:26
9 Lennert Van Eetvelt
Lotto Dstny
0:29
10 Jack Haig
Bahrain - Victorious
0:29
55 Louis Vervaeke
Soudal Quick-Step
4:45
80 James Knox
Soudal Quick-Step
7:53
93 William Junior Lecerf
Soudal Quick-Step
8:41
94 Mauri Vansevenant
Soudal Quick-Step
8:49
95 Kasper Asgreen
Soudal Quick-Step
8:59
104 Mattia Cattaneo
Soudal Quick-Step
9:30
147 Casper Pedersen
Soudal Quick-Step
16:00
1 Ben O'Connor
Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team
31:23:27
2 Primož Roglič
Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe
3:49
3 Enric Mas Nicolau
Movistar Team
4:31
4 Antonio Tiberi
Bahrain - Victorious
5:00
5 Mikel Landa Meana
Soudal Quick-Step
5:13
6 Lennert Van Eetvelt
Lotto Dstny
5:15
7 Cristián Rodríguez Martín
5:19
8 Mattias Skjelmose Jensen
Lidl - Trek
5:24
9 Florian Lipowitz
Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe
5:25
10 Felix Gall
Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team
5:26
44 Mauri Vansevenant
Soudal Quick-Step
20:17
55 William Junior Lecerf
Soudal Quick-Step
28:15
58 Mattia Cattaneo
Soudal Quick-Step
29:21
65 Louis Vervaeke
Soudal Quick-Step
32:25
103 James Knox
Soudal Quick-Step
48:42
137 Kasper Asgreen
Soudal Quick-Step
1:03:12
153 Casper Pedersen
Soudal Quick-Step
1:10:59
1 Wout van Aert
Team Visma | Lease a Bike
203 pt
2 Kaden Groves
Alpecin - Deceuninck
162 pt
3 Pavel Bittner
Team dsm-firmenich PostNL
81 pt
4 Primož Roglič
Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe
58 pt
5 Mathias Vacek
Lidl - Trek
57 pt
6 Stefan Küng
Groupama - FDJ
51 pt
7 Ben O'Connor
Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team
50 pt
8 Corbin Strong
Israel - Premier Tech
49 pt
9 Lennert Van Eetvelt
Lotto Dstny
48 pt
10 Pau Miquel Delgado
Equipo Kern Pharma
48 pt
20 Mikel Landa Meana
Soudal Quick-Step
31 pt
44 Mauri Vansevenant
Soudal Quick-Step
13 pt
78 Kasper Asgreen
Soudal Quick-Step
1 pt
1 Primož Roglič
Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe
18 pt
2 Sylvain Moniquet
Lotto Dstny
16 pt
3 Filippo Zana
Team Jayco AlUla
11 pt
4 Pelayo Sánchez Mayo
Movistar Team
10 pt
5 Luis Ángel Maté Mardones
Euskaltel - Euskadi
9 pt
6 Ben O'Connor
Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team
9 pt
7 Bruno Armirail
Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team
7 pt
8 Lennert Van Eetvelt
Lotto Dstny
6 pt
9 Jay Vine
UAE Team Emirates
6 pt
10 Mauro Schmid
Team Jayco AlUla
5 pt
22 Mauri Vansevenant
Soudal Quick-Step
2 pt
23 Mikel Landa Meana
Soudal Quick-Step
1 pt
1 Antonio Tiberi
Bahrain - Victorious
31:28:27
2 Lennert Van Eetvelt
Lotto Dstny
0:15
3 Mattias Skjelmose Jensen
Lidl - Trek
0:24
4 Florian Lipowitz
Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe
0:25
5 Carlos Rodríguez Cano
INEOS Grenadiers
0:56
6 Isaac del Toro Romero
UAE Team Emirates
1:32
7 Max Poole
Team dsm-firmenich PostNL
5:58
8 Matthew Riccitello
Israel - Premier Tech
11:01
9 Mauri Vansevenant
Soudal Quick-Step
15:17
10 Cian Uijtdebroeks
Team Visma | Lease a Bike
17:48
13 William Junior Lecerf
Soudal Quick-Step
23:15
1 Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team 94:23:09
2 Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe 4:02
3 UAE Team Emirates 5:13
4 Israel - Premier Tech 8:02
5 Movistar Team 9:33
6 Bahrain - Victorious 12:01
7 Groupama - FDJ 13:15
8 INEOS Grenadiers 13:56
9 Team Visma | Lease a Bike 22:15
10 Intermarché - Wanty 23:18

Related items

Landa delivers huge ride on first GC test of La Vuelta

Landa delivers huge ride on first GC test of La Vuelta

20/08/2024 - Race report
Link
Vuelta a España - stage 8

Vuelta a España - stage 8

24/08/2024 - Road
Link