La Vuelta: Landa cements top five place

La Vuelta: Landa cements top five place

The Spanish Grand Tour resumed after a rainy second rest day, taking the peloton to Lagos de Covadonga, the race’s mythical climb. The 12.5km Asturian ascent, which was used for the first time in 1983, made its 23rd La Vuelta appearance and seriously tested the riders, who had to overcome its punishing double-digit gradients on their way to the top.

T-Rex Quick-Step’s Mikel Landa kicked off the third week in fifth place overall, following a string of solid performances on the previous summit finishes, and the 34-year-old was again among the protagonists at the end of the gruelling stage 16. But before the GC men moved into the spotlight, a large breakaway left its mark on this day, a breakaway which also featured our Belgian neo-pro William Junior Lecerf.

Lecerf was of great help to Mikel, who was the first of the favourites to make a move on the steep slopes of Covadonga, trying to distance the others. Despite being brought to heel, the Basque tried again to open a gap, an effort which later took its toll on him, but thanks to an excellent job of William and a remarkable determination from his side, he powered through the fog and rain on this stage won by Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates) to keep hold of his fifth place in the overall standings and even increase his margin over the next riders on the general classification.

“I felt that I had nothing to lose, so I tried something early, especially as the group was a small one at that point. It didn’t work, but I am content at the end of the day. I want to thank William for his effort, he helped me cut the gap to those in front thanks to an immense pull. There are still a couple of hard stages left until Madrid and I am keen on trying again, because you never know where this can take you on the general classification”, an upbeat Mikel explained after the stage.

 

Photo credit: ©Tim De Waele / Getty Images

Race details

1 Marc Soler Giménez
UAE Team Emirates
4:44:46
2 Filippo Zana
Team Jayco AlUla
0:18
3 Max Poole
Team dsm-firmenich PostNL
0:23
4 Jay Vine
UAE Team Emirates
0:57
5 Ion Izagirre Insausti
Cofidis
1:02
6 Isaac del Toro Romero
UAE Team Emirates
1:29
7 Marco Frigo
Israel - Premier Tech
1:35
8 Matthew Riccitello
Israel - Premier Tech
1:47
9 Enric Mas Nicolau
Movistar Team
3:54
10 Richard Carapaz Montenegro
EF Education - EasyPost
3:54
16 Mikel Landa Meana
Soudal Quick-Step
4:05
30 William Junior Lecerf
Soudal Quick-Step
6:45
41 Mattia Cattaneo
Soudal Quick-Step
10:21
44 James Knox
Soudal Quick-Step
12:36
69 Louis Vervaeke
Soudal Quick-Step
24:44
77 Mauri Vansevenant
Soudal Quick-Step
28:22
130 Kasper Asgreen
Soudal Quick-Step
30:14
136 Casper Pedersen
Soudal Quick-Step
31:30
1 Ben O'Connor
Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team
65:09:00
2 Primož Roglič
Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe
0:05
3 Enric Mas Nicolau
Movistar Team
1:25
4 Richard Carapaz Montenegro
EF Education - EasyPost
1:46
5 Mikel Landa Meana
Soudal Quick-Step
2:18
6 David Gaudu
Groupama - FDJ
3:48
7 Carlos Rodríguez Cano
INEOS Grenadiers
3:53
8 Mattias Skjelmose Jensen
Lidl - Trek
4:00
9 Florian Lipowitz
Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe
4:27
10 Pavel Sivakov
UAE Team Emirates
5:19
26 Mattia Cattaneo
Soudal Quick-Step
54:57
42 William Junior Lecerf
Soudal Quick-Step
1:27:55
48 Mauri Vansevenant
Soudal Quick-Step
1:35:17
51 Louis Vervaeke
Soudal Quick-Step
1:45:40
65 James Knox
Soudal Quick-Step
2:05:15
122 Kasper Asgreen
Soudal Quick-Step
3:26:42
132 Casper Pedersen
Soudal Quick-Step
3:40:46
1 Kaden Groves
Alpecin - Deceuninck
182 pt
2 Harold Tejada Canacue
Astana Qazaqstan Team
95 pt
3 Pablo Castrillo Zapater
Equipo Kern Pharma
93 pt
4 Marc Soler Giménez
UAE Team Emirates
82 pt
5 Pavel Bittner
Team dsm-firmenich PostNL
81 pt
6 Max Poole
Team dsm-firmenich PostNL
81 pt
7 Primož Roglič
Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe
78 pt
8 Stefan Küng
Groupama - FDJ
74 pt
9 Ben O'Connor
Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team
73 pt
10 Marco Frigo
Israel - Premier Tech
72 pt
20 Mikel Landa Meana
Soudal Quick-Step
51 pt
24 Mauri Vansevenant
Soudal Quick-Step
48 pt
48 William Junior Lecerf
Soudal Quick-Step
29 pt
61 Kasper Asgreen
Soudal Quick-Step
18 pt
84 Louis Vervaeke
Soudal Quick-Step
5 pt
1 Jay Vine
UAE Team Emirates
56 pt
2 Marc Soler Giménez
UAE Team Emirates
42 pt
3 Pablo Castrillo Zapater
Equipo Kern Pharma
37 pt
4 Filippo Zana
Team Jayco AlUla
27 pt
5 Marco Frigo
Israel - Premier Tech
26 pt
6 Adam Yates
UAE Team Emirates
22 pt
7 Aleksandr Vlasov
Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe
19 pt
8 Max Poole
Team dsm-firmenich PostNL
19 pt
9 Primož Roglič
Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe
18 pt
10 David Gaudu
Groupama - FDJ
18 pt
17 William Junior Lecerf
Soudal Quick-Step
10 pt
22 Mattia Cattaneo
Soudal Quick-Step
6 pt
24 Mikel Landa Meana
Soudal Quick-Step
5 pt
41 Mauri Vansevenant
Soudal Quick-Step
2 pt
1 Carlos Rodríguez Cano
INEOS Grenadiers
65:12:53
2 Mattias Skjelmose Jensen
Lidl - Trek
0:07
3 Florian Lipowitz
Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe
0:34
4 Matthew Riccitello
Israel - Premier Tech
53:38
5 Max Poole
Team dsm-firmenich PostNL
1:12:18
6 Giovanni Aleotti
Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe
1:22:19
7 William Junior Lecerf
Soudal Quick-Step
1:24:02
8 Isaac del Toro Romero
UAE Team Emirates
1:26:49
9 Mauri Vansevenant
Soudal Quick-Step
1:31:24
10 Valentin Paret-Peintre
Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team
1:32:04
1 UAE Team Emirates 194:58:35
2 Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe 43:00
3 Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team 1:20:18
4 Team Visma | Lease a Bike 1:30:39
5 Soudal Quick-Step 1:49:16
6 Groupama - FDJ 1:59:52
7 Lidl - Trek 2:08:53
8 INEOS Grenadiers 2:20:26
9 Israel - Premier Tech 2:30:02
10 Movistar Team 2:35:35

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