La Vuelta: Landa moves up in the GC after Picon Blanco

La Vuelta: Landa moves up in the GC after Picon Blanco

Seven classified climbs and 5000 vertical meters – two good reasons why the penultimate day of the Spanish Grand Tour was labelled as being the queen stage of the whole race. The final showdown between the general classification favourites in the high mountains brought an impressive display from the entire T-Rex Quick-Step team, who turned themselves inside out in support of Mikel Landa.

Our boys took over the reins in the peloton with around 70 kilometers to go, and their presence there was felt immediately, as the gap to the breakaway was reduced while riders began to lose contact with the bunch as a result of this forcing. On the long Puerto de los Tornos, Landa took the race by the scruff of its neck and danced clear of the main group, enlivening the race and shedding riders out the back, including some of his GC rivals.

A regrouping happened five kilometers from the top, but on the plateau leading to the last ascent of the day, the Basque tried again, spreading panic in the group, who chased hard to rejoin him. Not long after, Mattia Cattaneo and William Junior Lecerf made it back to the front of the race, and their presence ended up being of huge importance to Landa, who could save energy while the T-Rex Quick-Step duo controlled things.

On Picon Blanco, a climb where he won at the 2017 Vuelta a Burgos, Mikel dug deep and attacked countless times in an attempt to make the difference, and his efforts didn’t go unrewarded. An acceleration just 500 meters from the line ensured him a top ten finish on this hard climb, where Eddie Dunbar (Jayco-AlUla), and at the same time helped Mikel move to eighth on the standings with just the individual time trial in Madrid left.

“I am proud of the team, they worked hard for me today and I tried to do my best. I attacked several times, but found no allies, so the others came back. It wasn’t an easy stage, but I kept believing and fighting until the very end, so I am content and have no regrets”, Landa said after the stage.

 

Photo credit: ©Tim De Waele / Getty Images

Race details

1 Eddie Dunbar
Team Jayco AlUla
4:38:37
2 Enric Mas Nicolau
Movistar Team
0:07
3 Primož Roglič
Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe
0:10
4 Richard Carapaz Montenegro
EF Education - EasyPost
0:12
5 Urko Berrade Fernandez
Equipo Kern Pharma
0:14
6 Ben O'Connor
Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team
0:14
7 David Gaudu
Groupama - FDJ
0:21
8 Mikel Landa Meana
Soudal Quick-Step
0:23
9 Florian Lipowitz
Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe
0:37
10 Mattias Skjelmose Jensen
Lidl - Trek
0:37
27 William Junior Lecerf
Soudal Quick-Step
8:07
32 Mattia Cattaneo
Soudal Quick-Step
10:22
69 Mauri Vansevenant
Soudal Quick-Step
25:45
93 James Knox
Soudal Quick-Step
27:56
119 Louis Vervaeke
Soudal Quick-Step
34:35
132 Kasper Asgreen
Soudal Quick-Step
37:32
133 Casper Pedersen
Soudal Quick-Step
37:32
1 Primož Roglič
Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe
81:22:19
2 Ben O'Connor
Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team
2:02
3 Enric Mas Nicolau
Movistar Team
2:11
4 Richard Carapaz Montenegro
EF Education - EasyPost
3:00
5 David Gaudu
Groupama - FDJ
4:48
6 Mattias Skjelmose Jensen
Lidl - Trek
5:18
7 Florian Lipowitz
Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe
6:26
8 Mikel Landa Meana
Soudal Quick-Step
6:57
9 Pavel Sivakov
UAE Team Emirates
8:50
10 Carlos Rodríguez Cano
INEOS Grenadiers
10:31
23 Mattia Cattaneo
Soudal Quick-Step
1:13:17
44 William Junior Lecerf
Soudal Quick-Step
2:12:56
49 Mauri Vansevenant
Soudal Quick-Step
2:21:17
59 Louis Vervaeke
Soudal Quick-Step
2:44:09
66 James Knox
Soudal Quick-Step
3:04:06
120 Kasper Asgreen
Soudal Quick-Step
4:38:55
127 Casper Pedersen
Soudal Quick-Step
4:58:51
1 Kaden Groves
Alpecin - Deceuninck
226 pt
2 Primož Roglič
Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe
123 pt
3 Max Poole
Team dsm-firmenich PostNL
118 pt
4 Pablo Castrillo Zapater
Equipo Kern Pharma
117 pt
5 Pavel Bittner
Team dsm-firmenich PostNL
106 pt
6 Enric Mas Nicolau
Movistar Team
102 pt
7 Mathias Vacek
Lidl - Trek
100 pt
8 Marc Soler Giménez
UAE Team Emirates
98 pt
9 Harold Tejada Canacue
Astana Qazaqstan Team
95 pt
10 Urko Berrade Fernandez
Equipo Kern Pharma
89 pt
18 Mikel Landa Meana
Soudal Quick-Step
76 pt
31 Mauri Vansevenant
Soudal Quick-Step
48 pt
34 William Junior Lecerf
Soudal Quick-Step
44 pt
67 Kasper Asgreen
Soudal Quick-Step
18 pt
68 Mattia Cattaneo
Soudal Quick-Step
17 pt
89 Louis Vervaeke
Soudal Quick-Step
5 pt
1 Jay Vine
UAE Team Emirates
78 pt
2 Marc Soler Giménez
UAE Team Emirates
76 pt
3 Pablo Castrillo Zapater
Equipo Kern Pharma
43 pt
4 Primož Roglič
Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe
32 pt
5 Marco Frigo
Israel - Premier Tech
32 pt
6 Enric Mas Nicolau
Movistar Team
28 pt
7 Filippo Zana
Team Jayco AlUla
27 pt
8 Pavel Sivakov
UAE Team Emirates
26 pt
9 Aleksandr Vlasov
Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe
25 pt
10 David Gaudu
Groupama - FDJ
24 pt
19 William Junior Lecerf
Soudal Quick-Step
10 pt
26 Mikel Landa Meana
Soudal Quick-Step
6 pt
28 Mattia Cattaneo
Soudal Quick-Step
6 pt
45 Mauri Vansevenant
Soudal Quick-Step
2 pt
1 Mattias Skjelmose Jensen
Lidl - Trek
81:27:37
2 Florian Lipowitz
Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe
1:08
3 Carlos Rodríguez Cano
INEOS Grenadiers
5:13
4 Matthew Riccitello
Israel - Premier Tech
1:38:59
5 Max Poole
Team dsm-firmenich PostNL
1:49:41
6 Isaac del Toro Romero
UAE Team Emirates
1:51:28
7 Giovanni Aleotti
Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe
1:52:14
8 William Junior Lecerf
Soudal Quick-Step
2:07:38
9 Valentin Paret-Peintre
Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team
2:08:09
10 Gianmarco Garofoli
Astana Qazaqstan Team
2:15:03
11 Mauri Vansevenant
Soudal Quick-Step
2:15:59
1 UAE Team Emirates 243:49:54
2 Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe 34:20
3 Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team 1:21:54
4 Team Visma | Lease a Bike 1:51:14
5 Groupama - FDJ 2:15:44
6 Soudal Quick-Step 2:27:40
7 Movistar Team 2:46:14
8 Lidl - Trek 2:47:32
9 Equipo Kern Pharma 2:51:57
10 INEOS Grenadiers 3:15:33

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