This Thursday 7th of September, Boy van Poppel obtained the first podium of team Intermarché-Circus-Wanty in this 78th edition of La Vuelta, by taking third place in the bunch sprint of the twelfth stage.
This transition stage of 150 kilometer showed a classic scenario, with a breakaway of two riders easily controllable for the splinters teams in the peloton after a big day in the Pyrenees.
The lead out of Hugo Page, van Poppel, took advantage of his excellent position to challenge the best sprinters in the final hectometers and was only defeated on the line by Juan Sebastian Molano and double stage winner Kaden Groves.
In this way, The 35 year old Dutchman achieved the first podium of his career in a Grand Tour in the streets of Saragossa, the city in which his father Jean-Paul won a sprint in La Vuelta 1991.
Hugo Page assured a double top ten for the team with his ninth place, the third top ten in this Vuelta for the 22 year old Frenchman.
Boy van Poppel :
“Our team always kept a positive mindset, despite the loss of our leader Gerben Thijssen before La Vuelta even started. It is fantastic to see the devotion of our team to support our young sprinter Hugo Page in each sprint stage, until the final hectometers. Today I was really eager to improve our previous sprints. We again showed a strong cohesion. With 2 kilometer to go, Hugo lost the slipstream of Julius and myself, but we chose to stay well positioned, hoping to hear his voice and lead him to the sprint. In extremis, Hugo managed to return close to me, but he didn’t have space to follow me to the right on the outside, like we initially planned. I managed to keep cool and thanks to my experience, I ended up in the slipstream of Molano, after which I decided to sprint all out until the line. I consider this podium as an important moment in my career. As a loyal lead out I don’t often have the chance to obtain a personal result. I’m happy with how my legs feel and I will need it for the next big day in the mountains tomorrow. I expect two more sprint opportunities in this Vuelta and it remains our intention to give everything to improve this third place.”
Stage 12:
1.Juan Sebastian Molano 3:23:35
2.Kaden Groves
3.Boy van Poppel
Provisional classification:
1.Sepp Kuss (Jumbo Visma) 42:51:20
2.Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates)+26″
3.Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quickstep) +1’09”
