La Vuelta: Landa maintains GC place after chaotic day

La Vuelta: Landa maintains GC place after chaotic day

Mikel Landa will enter the first rest day of his home Grand Tour sitting in fifth overall after an insanely hard stage nine, which featured Alto de El Pulche and a double ascent of Alto de Hazallanas. Both climbs featured stinging double-digit ramps that wreaked havoc in the peloton, who got reduced to around 15 men by the time they crested Hazallanas for the first time, trailing the breakaway by almost seven minutes and without a team properly controlling this margin.

So hard – in part, also because of the weather – was this 178.5km stage to Granada that, unlike Saturday, the decisive attacks missed almost completely, the selection being made instead only by the change of pace on the last hurdle of the day. Briefly distanced at one point, Mikel Landa kept his calm and soon found his rhythm, displaying his indomitable spirit as he rejoined the favourites’ group, who were doing their best to tame the savage gradients and reduce the gap to lone leader Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates).

What they couldn’t do on the climb was possible on the long descent, where the GC men worked well together and cut their deficit to less than four minutes by the time they arrived at the finish. There, Landa still had something left to produce a solid sprint that almost netted him third place after almost five exhausting hours in the saddle. This helped Mikel cement his position in the standings, where he was already sitting fifth overall after Saturday’s fine outing on Cazorla.

“I am content with the fact I could stay in the main group. At the finish, I even tried to take some bonus seconds, but O’Connor was a bit faster. Nevertheless, it was a good day in some hard conditions, and to be able to defend my GC place gives me a good feeling as it’s something that I will carry into the second week of the race”, explained Mikel in Granada.

 

Photo credit: ©Tim De Waele / Getty Images

Race details

1 Adam Yates
UAE Team Emirates
4:42:28
2 Richard Carapaz Montenegro
EF Education - EasyPost
1:39
3 Ben O'Connor
Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team
3:45
4 Mikel Landa Meana
Soudal Quick-Step
3:45
5 Florian Lipowitz
Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe
3:45
6 Pavel Sivakov
UAE Team Emirates
3:45
7 Carlos Rodríguez Cano
INEOS Grenadiers
3:45
8 Primož Roglič
Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe
3:45
9 David Gaudu
Groupama - FDJ
3:45
10 Enric Mas Nicolau
Movistar Team
3:45
34 Mattia Cattaneo
Soudal Quick-Step
16:21
53 Louis Vervaeke
Soudal Quick-Step
25:17
75 Mauri Vansevenant
Soudal Quick-Step
29:39
94 Kasper Asgreen
Soudal Quick-Step
35:55
118 William Junior Lecerf
Soudal Quick-Step
35:55
126 James Knox
Soudal Quick-Step
35:55
136 Casper Pedersen
Soudal Quick-Step
35:55
1 Ben O'Connor
Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team
36:09:36
2 Primož Roglič
Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe
3:53
3 Richard Carapaz Montenegro
EF Education - EasyPost
4:32
4 Enric Mas Nicolau
Movistar Team
4:35
5 Mikel Landa Meana
Soudal Quick-Step
5:17
6 Florian Lipowitz
Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe
5:29
7 Adam Yates
UAE Team Emirates
5:30
8 Felix Gall
Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team
5:30
9 Carlos Rodríguez Cano
INEOS Grenadiers
6:00
10 David Gaudu
Groupama - FDJ
6:32
44 Mattia Cattaneo
Soudal Quick-Step
42:01
51 Mauri Vansevenant
Soudal Quick-Step
46:15
55 Louis Vervaeke
Soudal Quick-Step
54:01
68 William Junior Lecerf
Soudal Quick-Step
1:00:29
106 James Knox
Soudal Quick-Step
1:20:56
135 Kasper Asgreen
Soudal Quick-Step
1:35:26
150 Casper Pedersen
Soudal Quick-Step
1:43:13
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
66 pt
5 Ben O'Connor
Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team
65 pt
6 Mathias Vacek
Lidl - Trek
57 pt
7 Stefan Küng
Groupama - FDJ
51 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
13 Mikel Landa Meana
Soudal Quick-Step
44 pt
47 Mauri Vansevenant
Soudal Quick-Step
13 pt
76 Kasper Asgreen
Soudal Quick-Step
1 pt
1 Adam Yates
UAE Team Emirates
22 pt
2 Primož Roglič
Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe
18 pt
3 David Gaudu
Groupama - FDJ
18 pt
4 Jay Vine
UAE Team Emirates
17 pt
5 Sylvain Moniquet
Lotto Dstny
16 pt
6 Filippo Zana
Team Jayco AlUla
11 pt
7 Pelayo Sánchez Mayo
Movistar Team
10 pt
8 Luis Ángel Maté Mardones
Euskaltel - Euskadi
9 pt
9 Ben O'Connor
Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team
9 pt
10 Richard Carapaz Montenegro
EF Education - EasyPost
9 pt
26 Mauri Vansevenant
Soudal Quick-Step
2 pt
27 Mikel Landa Meana
Soudal Quick-Step
1 pt
1 Florian Lipowitz
Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe
36:15:05
2 Carlos Rodríguez Cano
INEOS Grenadiers
0:31
3 Mattias Skjelmose Jensen
Lidl - Trek
1:49
4 Lennert Van Eetvelt
Lotto Dstny
3:26
5 Max Poole
Team dsm-firmenich PostNL
31:27
6 Isaac del Toro Romero
UAE Team Emirates
33:17
7 Matthew Riccitello
Israel - Premier Tech
36:30
8 Giovanni Aleotti
Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe
37:47
9 Cian Uijtdebroeks
Team Visma | Lease a Bike
38:55
10 Mauri Vansevenant
Soudal Quick-Step
40:46
16 William Junior Lecerf
Soudal Quick-Step
55:00
1 UAE Team Emirates 108:43:16
2 Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team 5:03
3 Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe 6:10
4 Groupama - FDJ 30:01
5 Israel - Premier Tech 42:35
6 INEOS Grenadiers 46:08
7 Team Visma | Lease a Bike 48:52
8 Movistar Team 49:21
9 Lidl - Trek 58:01
10 Soudal Quick-Step 58:37

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24/08/2024 - Race report
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