Jasper Stuyven gritted his teeth. Hanging on by a thread he dug deep to get over the final climb in stage eight at the Vuelta a España. Only 17 kilometers remained to the finish and it was a ‘do or die’ situation.
Stuyven was one of the last riders to crest the tough category-three climb with the front group, and once over his teammates Riccardo Zoidl and Haimar Zubeldia went to work.
Three riders still led out front with over 20 seconds and the amount of real estate remaining was quickly ebbing away.
Zubeldia and Zoidl pulled hard at the front, and with help from a few other teams the trio were brought back with 3.5 kilometers to go. There was one more last ditch effort, a serious threat in a late flyer by Adam Hansen (Lotto-Soudal), but the bunch sensed the barn door, and it was wide-open.
With Hansen caught back in the last half-kilometer, Jasper Stuyven launched his sprint early and was never really challenged as he powered to his first professional win by a bike length.
“We knew it was going to be really hard today,” explained Stuyven. “We were well-placed together with the team and then there was the big crash and we had a few of us go down. I was also in the crash, and I hit my wrists pretty bad, they were hurting a lot, but I said to the guys I am gonna try.
“I suffered a lot the first time up the climb, and I was afraid that I would not make it a second time, but Dirk [Demol, director] was there to say to keep fighting, keep fighting. And I was in a good position at the bottom so I could drift a little bit back on the climb; I think I was one of the last guys to make it over with the front group.
“Haimar [Zubeldia] and Riccardo [Zoidl] were there to pull the guys back, they did a really, really great job. I was in a good place, in the wheel of [Tosh] van der Sande, because he was going well. Then we slowed down and they came from behind, but I felt it was a little bit of a tailwind so I thought [to myself] just go for it and I went with 350 meters to go.
“Then [Bilbao] from Caja-Rural came a little bit from the left, but I felt immediately I had more power. I was so aggressive…mad at myself, motivating myself, [telling myself] I can do this. So I kept pushing. And in the end it was not even so close. Great victory…it’s why I came to the Vuelta.”
For the young, talented Belgian in his second year as a professional it was a long overdue victory, and somehow delaying his first sip of victory champagne for a Grand Tour stage seems uncannily appropriate: he is a rider destined for big things.
“I was kidding with Jasper a little bit during the team training camp we had during the Tour [de France] that you cannot finish the season without a victory and it’s not going to be easy because you are only doing the Vuelta. And he did it! I am so happy for him!” laughed director Dirk Demol.
“He is a young rider that has invested a lot in his career. He is often going on his own to do his own training camps, he is really focused on his job and he is strong in the head. It’s a nice win, his first as a professional. A really nice win.”
Stuyven added: “I always aim high and sometimes aiming high can give you only disappointment. After having so much bad luck this year it is finally nice to be able to do something with the good legs and it’s really nice to take the first victory in a WorldTour race. I am really, really happy. The team did well to pull everything back and even after the crash I kept fighting, kept fighting…Yeah. It pays off.”
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Jasper Stuyven forced to abandon La Vuelta after taking his first pro victory
There were highs and lows in the Trek Factory Racing Team on Saturday. Just a few hours after young Belgian talent Jasper Stuyven won the 8th stage of the Vuelta a Espana, the team announced he was forced to withdraw from the race due to a broken left scaphoid.
Jasper Stuyven was one of the many involved in the huge crash at 50 kilometers from the finish, which also took Kris Boeckmans (Lotto-Soudal), Nacer Bouhanni (Cofidis), Daniel Martin (Cannondale-Garmin), and Tejay Van Garderen (BMC) out of the race.
Stuyven: “Like I said after the finish, I felt my wrist and it was getting more and more painful, so I asked to go to the hospital to make the check. I was already scared that it could be the scaphoid because I know from friends who are cyclists what the pain feels like and where it’s located. And, unfortunately, the X-rays confirmed that it is broken and that my Vuelta finishes today.”
Nevertheless, Stuyven remains positive: “At first I was of course really disappointed, but then I realized that I really have to enjoy this moment, because now is the time to enjoy my first professional win. For what’s next, I will see when I get home and have the surgery.”
Team doctor Nino Daniele, who accompanied Stuyven to the hospital explains: “The fracture is not dislocated, so in fact it won’t be difficult to resolve it, but it goes without saying that Jasper cannot ride his bike for now. First of all, it would be very painful, but then it’s also possible that the broken bones move and we absolutely want to avoid that.”
Jasper Stuyven will fly back to Belgium on Sunday in order to have surgery as soon as possible in his hometown, Leuven. “If anything goes well, as I hope, in a couple of weeks, he should be back on the bike and probably sooner on the rollers with his cast,” the team doctor confirmed.
