La Vuelta: Great performance of T-Rex Quick-Step on Cuitu Negru

La Vuelta: Great performance of T-Rex Quick-Step on Cuitu Negru

T-Rex Quick-Step rode an immense stage Sunday afternoon, when the peloton entered the Asturias, a region of Spain known for its inhuman ascents boasting stinging double-digit gradients. Stage 15 of the race, the last before a well-deserved second rest day, culminated on Cuitu Negru, a long and demanding climb which had featured just once, at the 2012 edition, when Dario Cataldo won for our team from the breakaway.

Long before this first Hors Catégorie climb of La Vuelta, the T-Rex Quick-Step boys took the race by the scruff of its neck, coming with the entire squad at the head of the peloton and pushing a mammoth tempo that decimated the field. The likes of William Junior Lecerf, Mauri Vansevenant and Mattia Cattaneo took over the reins from their teammates on Cuitu Negru, shredding the red jersey group to a dozen riders and paving the way for an attack of Mikel Landa.

The Basque bolted away with more than six kilometers left, an acceleration which further reduced the favourites’ group, just before they took on the goat track that came with three kilometers to go, where the gradients reached a jaw-dropping 24%. On this lung-bursting, leg-sapping section of the climb, Mikel dropped many of his general classification opponents and took ninth place at the top, behind winner Pablo Castrillo (KernPharma). This solid result helped the 34-year-old strengthen his grip on fifth place on the overall standings ahead of next Tuesday’s Lagos de Covadonga, Spain’s mythical ascent, where the gaps between the contenders should widen again.

“I am happy with how things went. The team was incredibly strong and did a fantastic work for me, and I was determined to try something in the hope of gaining time on the general classification. It didn’t quite work out, but if you don’t try, you never know what you could have done. There are a couple of opportunities left at the Vuelta and I want to go again on the attack in the next mountain stages and see what this will bring”, Mikel explained at the finish.

 

Photo credit: ©Tim De Waele / Getty Images

Race details

1 Pablo Castrillo Zapater
Equipo Kern Pharma
3:45:51
2 Aleksandr Vlasov
Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe
0:12
3 Pavel Sivakov
UAE Team Emirates
0:31
4 Enric Mas Nicolau
Movistar Team
1:04
5 Primož Roglič
Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe
1:04
6 Mattias Skjelmose Jensen
Lidl - Trek
1:09
7 Richard Carapaz Montenegro
EF Education - EasyPost
1:13
8 Sepp Kuss
Team Visma | Lease a Bike
1:22
9 Mikel Landa Meana
Soudal Quick-Step
1:27
10 David Gaudu
Groupama - FDJ
1:37
25 Mattia Cattaneo
Soudal Quick-Step
8:04
42 William Junior Lecerf
Soudal Quick-Step
11:44
45 Mauri Vansevenant
Soudal Quick-Step
16:17
70 Louis Vervaeke
Soudal Quick-Step
22:02
88 James Knox
Soudal Quick-Step
22:31
134 Casper Pedersen
Soudal Quick-Step
26:48
146 Kasper Asgreen
Soudal Quick-Step
34:31
1 Ben O'Connor
Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team
60:19:22
2 Primož Roglič
Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe
1:03
3 Enric Mas Nicolau
Movistar Team
2:23
4 Richard Carapaz Montenegro
EF Education - EasyPost
2:44
5 Mikel Landa Meana
Soudal Quick-Step
3:05
6 Florian Lipowitz
Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe
4:33
7 David Gaudu
Groupama - FDJ
4:39
8 Carlos Rodríguez Cano
INEOS Grenadiers
4:40
9 Mattias Skjelmose Jensen
Lidl - Trek
4:51
10 Pavel Sivakov
UAE Team Emirates
5:12
26 Mattia Cattaneo
Soudal Quick-Step
49:28
40 Mauri Vansevenant
Soudal Quick-Step
1:11:47
50 Louis Vervaeke
Soudal Quick-Step
1:25:48
51 William Junior Lecerf
Soudal Quick-Step
1:26:02
71 James Knox
Soudal Quick-Step
1:57:31
125 Kasper Asgreen
Soudal Quick-Step
3:01:20
133 Casper Pedersen
Soudal Quick-Step
3:14:08
1 Wout van Aert
Team Visma | Lease a Bike
291 pt
2 Kaden Groves
Alpecin - Deceuninck
182 pt
3 Harold Tejada Canacue
Astana Qazaqstan Team
95 pt
4 Pablo Castrillo Zapater
Equipo Kern Pharma
93 pt
5 Pavel Bittner
Team dsm-firmenich PostNL
81 pt
6 Stefan Küng
Groupama - FDJ
74 pt
7 Primož Roglič
Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe
73 pt
8 Ben O'Connor
Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team
73 pt
9 Mathias Vacek
Lidl - Trek
70 pt
10 Jhonatan Narváez Prado
INEOS Grenadiers
67 pt
19 Mikel Landa Meana
Soudal Quick-Step
51 pt
22 Mauri Vansevenant
Soudal Quick-Step
48 pt
47 William Junior Lecerf
Soudal Quick-Step
29 pt
58 Kasper Asgreen
Soudal Quick-Step
18 pt
84 Louis Vervaeke
Soudal Quick-Step
5 pt
1 Wout van Aert
Team Visma | Lease a Bike
46 pt
2 Jay Vine
UAE Team Emirates
46 pt
3 Pablo Castrillo Zapater
Equipo Kern Pharma
37 pt
4 Marc Soler Giménez
UAE Team Emirates
25 pt
5 Adam Yates
UAE Team Emirates
22 pt
6 Marco Frigo
Israel - Premier Tech
22 pt
7 Aleksandr Vlasov
Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe
19 pt
8 Primož Roglič
Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe
18 pt
9 David Gaudu
Groupama - FDJ
18 pt
10 Sylvain Moniquet
Lotto Dstny
17 pt
18 William Junior Lecerf
Soudal Quick-Step
10 pt
23 Mattia Cattaneo
Soudal Quick-Step
6 pt
25 Mikel Landa Meana
Soudal Quick-Step
5 pt
40 Mauri Vansevenant
Soudal Quick-Step
2 pt
1 Florian Lipowitz
Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe
60:23:55
2 Carlos Rodríguez Cano
INEOS Grenadiers
0:07
3 Mattias Skjelmose Jensen
Lidl - Trek
0:18
4 Matthew Riccitello
Israel - Premier Tech
56:03
5 Mauri Vansevenant
Soudal Quick-Step
1:07:14
6 Giovanni Aleotti
Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe
1:12:06
7 Max Poole
Team dsm-firmenich PostNL
1:16:11
8 William Junior Lecerf
Soudal Quick-Step
1:21:29
9 Isaac del Toro Romero
UAE Team Emirates
1:29:34
10 Valentin Paret-Peintre
Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team
1:30:38
1 UAE Team Emirates 180:41:51
2 Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe 31:08
3 Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team 57:52
4 Team Visma | Lease a Bike 1:12:50
5 Groupama - FDJ 1:19:49
6 Lidl - Trek 1:21:18
7 Soudal Quick-Step 1:30:31
8 INEOS Grenadiers 1:41:08
9 Equipo Kern Pharma 1:54:33
10 Israel - Premier Tech 1:59:15

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