The first of two demanding stages ahead of the rest day took the riders over 153km as well as six categorised climbs in the northern Spanish coastal mountains. It came down to a battle among the GC riders on the brutal final climb up to Colláu Fancuaya. Under the dictation of pace by Ineos Grenadiers and then Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl, the gap to the break came down to around 2:30 minutes, but the tempo was too high for several riders, and in the end only Evenepoel, Roglič, Mas, Yates and Rodriguez were able to hold on. Jai Hindley found himself in the white jersey group around 30 seconds back, while Sergio Higuita 20 seconds behind him and Wilco Kelderman around 2:30 minutes back. With J. Vine taking the win from the breakaway group, Jai crossed the finish line in 16th place, Sergio in 19th and Wilco in 37th. Meanwhile, in the fight for the green jersey, M. Pedersen took maximum points at the intermediate sprint from the breakaway, and so Sam Bennett lost his lead in the points classification, and now lies five points behind the Dane.
Result
01 J. Vine 4:05:25
02 M. Soler +0:43
03 R. Taaramae +0:43
From the Finish Line
“It was a tough day from the start. But the team, especially our fast guys, put in a great performance to come back after the start and position our GC riders well. I have to say they did a really good job there. The last climb was really brutal. And on inclines like that, you either have the legs or you don’t. Unfortunately we all lost a bit of time there, but the race is far from over. There’s still a long way to go to Madrid, and hopefully we can recover from that.” – Jai Hindley
“It was a shame of course that we had to give up the green jersey, but it’s all still very close in that competition and we’ll certainly get more chances to take it back. As for the stage today, it was very tough, with the five climbs before the final ascent. Our riders were up there, and at times it went well, but at other times it could have gone better to be honest. But nothing is lost here yet and we will continue to motivate the guys to further perform at their best.” – Jens Zemke, Sports Director
