The longest day led to the strongest breakaway of this year’s edition of the Vuelta. The Austrian rider, Michael Gogl, took the opportunity to jump in an early escape, which quickly built up a huge advantage of more than twenty minutes on the peloton – the biggest of this year’s race. After a late attack from the break took the stage win, Michael fought it out for fourth place after his strongest performance of the race so far and a career-best finish.
The undulating parcours of stage 13, which took in four third category climbs, was crying out for a breakaway, and while this hasn’t been a race where escapes have succeeded so far, the 213.4km stage that again skirted along the northern coast before twice dipping into France in the final 50km, would give a decent break a chance to survive until the end of the day – provided they made it over the difficult climbs with enough of an advantage.
While an early break with Daniele Bennati didn’t stick, the moment he was reeled back in, a larger group of twelve, with the Austrian Michael Gogl in their mix, made their way up the road. In spite of the efforts of some of the teams in the bunch to pull them back in, the escapees built up an advantage of a minute, two minutes and from that point the lead simply kept on growing. By the time 60km had been covered, the group had more than twelve minutes on the peloton, and by the time the race had covered 130km, the group hit the twenty-minute mark. Riding strong on the front, Michael was the key element in keeping the escape together, driving the pace and pulling hard to keep the peloton at bay.
At this point, the peloton knew that catching the break was a lost cause, and took a more leisurely pace as the final 30km came. None of the break would have an impact on the GC standings, and so the bunch left it to the escapees to fight it out amongst themselves for the stage win – preferring to save their energy for the hard day in France tomorrow. With one rider attacking and heading up the road, Michael worked hard behind to drive the pace and make the catch, but without the support of the other riders was unable to follow. In a group of six challenging for second spot, the Austrian took fourth after a long and tiring day at the front of the break.
From the finish line, Sport Director, Lars Michaelsen, was impressed by both Michael’s performance and his maturity as a racer in his first year as a professional. “We knew this would be one of the stages where a breakaway could go and stay away. We had a few guys lined up to try and go in the move, Gogl was keen to go and he did a great job. Sometimes you forget he’s a neo pro – he rides in a mature way – strong – and looks after Alberto well.”
In his first Grand Tour, Michael was pleased with his finish – taking his career-best result. “It was a long, long day – the longest day of La Vuelta. We have had two tough stages in the past couple of days, so it was hard, hard, hard. First Jelle Wallays went, so I went with him as he’s a really strong rider. They caught up and Conti went and was really strong, so he’s a deserved winner today.”
Michael was learning from every race experience, and his Sport Director, Michaelsen, was quick to support his development after today’s strong finish. “Since there was no chase behind everyone came quite fresh into the final. Michael took a chance going away with Jelle Wallays with 30km to go. It was a good chance, something to try. One thing to say is that he could have finished second, but he had a gap to close, which cost him. Of course we’re racing to win and today there was one guy stronger. Still, chapeau to Michael. Behind in the bunch there were no issues for the guys and they finished safely after a steady day.”
Finishing in the peloton after a slower-paced day, Alberto explained the bunch’s slower speed. “It was a very long day and we took it more calmly, especially in the finale. We now have to focus on tomorrow, the Queen Stage. That’s why the peloton had a slower pace behind the breakaway. We have been through a lot of demanding days with high temperatures and tomorrow we have long climbs with more than 5,000m of altitude gains, so we will need all the energy we have.“
As the Vuelta heads into France for a day, the riders will face the toughest day of climbing of the race so far. Three first category climbs will drain even the strongest riders, with gradients reaching almost 14%, before the final, especial climb, where the roads ramp up to 15% on the Aubisque over its 16.5km distance. The GC riders will be looking to take time here, but who will have the energy after a full day’s climbing?
Having ridden a hard stage today, Michael was already looking ahead to support Alberto Contador on tomorrow’s demanding stage. “In a team like Tinkoff we really want to take the GC with Alberto, but today I had my chance and I took it and I’m happy with the result. It’s a really tough mountain stage tomorrow and I’ll recover from today now to get ready for tomorrow.”
After such hard efforts in recent days, Alberto was relieved the peloton took it easy behind today’s break. “It wasn’t something we had planned today, it was just a question of fatigue. Our legs have gone through a lot of effort, every day, so, I think tomorrow will be a different story. It will be a very important day and if you think about it, that will be the first stage with true, long climbs at the Vuelta, with the exception of the finish to Lagos de Covadonga, the rest have been nearly all explosive finishes. Tomorrow, it will be very important to have a good form.”
Stage Result
1. Valerio Conti (ITA) Lampre – Merida +05:29:04
2. Danilo Wyss (SWI) BMC Racing Team +00:00:55
3. Sergey Lagutin (RUS) Team Katusha +00:00:55
4. Michael Gogl (AUT) Tinkoff +00:00:55
5. Vergard Stake Laengen (NOR) IAM Cycling +00:00:55
31. Alberto Contador (SPA) Tinkoff Team +00:33:54
32. Manuele Boaro (ITA) Tinkoff +00:33:54
33. Daniele Bennati (ITA) Tinkoff +00:33:54
42. Ivan Rovny (RUS) Tinkoff +00:33:54
43. Sergio Paulinho (POR) Tinkoff +00:33:54
44. Yuri Trofimov (RUS) Tinkoff +00:33:54
52. Jesús Hernández (SPA) Tinkoff +00:33:54
GC After Stage 13
1. Nairo Quintana (COL) Movistar Team 52:56:29
2. Chris Froome (GBR) Team Sky +00:00:54
3. Alejandro Valverde (SPA) Movistar Team +00:01:05
4. Esteban Chaves (COL) Orica-BikeExchange +00:02:34
5. Alberto Contador (SPA) Tinkoff Team +00:03:08
37. Jesús Hernández (SPA) Tinkoff +00:24:39
46. Yuri Trofimov (RUS) Tinkoff +00:43:45
81. Michael Gogl (AUT) Tinkoff +01:19:56
125. Daniele Bennati (ITA) Tinkoff +01:56:11
135. Ivan Rovny (RUS) Tinkoff +02:04:42
140. Sergio Paulinho (POR) Tinkoff +02:13:33
163. Manuele Boaro (ITA) Tinkoff +02:34:09
