Gaudu completes long attack in very tough Vuelta stage, favorites save themselves for Angliru | Sport

A striking moment for the start. The riders started a little later due to a protest action by Ineos. Chris Froome and co thought it was impossible that the jury decided yesterday not to put Richard Carapaz in the same time as winner Primoz Roglic. The Ecuadorian was placed at three seconds and that was enough to lose the red leader’s jersey to the Slovenian.

After a brief exchange of words with race director Javier Guillen, the peloton started after all. A third category obstacle soon appeared, after which the riders had to cross four (!) First category climbs. Heavy mountain stage.

Tim Wellens smelled his chance to grab a lot of points in the battle for the polka dot jersey. The Belgian from Lotto-Soudal attacked, but had to let his fellow escapees ride on the second slope of the first category. Guillaume Martin benefited and strengthened his lead in the mountains classification.

Just before that, Marc Soler promptly crossed over to the leading group. Movistar’s Spaniard was eager for another stage victory and with Nelson Oliveira had a teammate at the front who could make pace. But the escapees did not get much of a lead.

The front runners started with a three-minute bonus on the 16.5-kilometer final climb. Sufficient, as it turned out. Soler and David Gaudu were the better climbers in the front and fought hard for the victory. In it, the Frenchman took the longest shot with a strong final shot.

Primoz Roglic, who kept his red jersey, and Richard Carapaz held each other in check. The favorites saved themselves for tomorrow. The finish of the twelfth Vuelta stage is on the murderous Angliru. Fireworks guaranteed.

24-year-old David Gaudu has taken his first stage victory in a big round. “This is a boost after a very difficult year for the team,” he added. Gaudu entered the early breakaway and managed to beat Marc Soler in a sprint-à-deux uphill. “I knew I had to come up with a good gear”, he said in the flash interview, “I do have a punch on such a finish, but Marc is also really fast. That’s why I waited until the last hundreds of meters. Fortunately, that acceleration at 150 meters was enough to beat him. At 75 meters I knew it was indoors. ”

“Unbelievable. This feels very good, because I actually had bad legs for a few days and I was really complaining that I was turning square. But today it went well. Not yet at the start of the stage, but in the end the legs turned smoothly and that was necessary to win here. ”

“This is a boost for the team too. We had a difficult Tour de France and after the retirement of Thibaut Pinot here, things did not go well for us, but this makes up for a lot. ”