La Vuelta | Jonas Vingegaard honors Nathan Van Hooydonck and makes a gigantic success in Cantabria

The second week of the Vuelta a España was all about Jumbo-Visma – and the collapse of Remco Evenepoel. On the way to the Col du Tourmalet, the Dutch team seized power in an almost Pro Cycling Manager-like manner, while the Belgian challenger (and defending champion) dropped out early.

In the final week, for the team of Giro winner Primoz Roglic and Tour winner Jonas Vingegaard, the question actually seemed to be who could win the Vuelta: the Slovenian, the Dane or the third dog for the same classification leg? Red jersey wearer Sepp Kuss had proven himself to be the best of the three uphill, time and time again.

A terrible accident with Nathan Van Hooydonck in the unfortunate center colored the day. The 27-year-old Belgian from Jumbo-Visma suffered a heart attack in Kalmthout while sitting in the car with his pregnant wife next to him.

Quick start

The first ride after the second rest day, so the start of the final week, was one of 120 kilometers from Liencres Playa to Bejes. From Cantabria, through the Asturias – tomorrow the Beast of the Asturias, the Altu de l’Angliru, awaits – and back to Cantabria.

120 mainly flat kilometers, with the final climb to Bejes at the end, with a ramp pass up to fifteen percent. A perfect match for the escapees? Ten names, including green jersey wearer Kaden Groves and Romain Bardet, thought so.

INEOS Grenadiers was not represented among that ten and the British team started a hellish chase. Omar Fraile, Filippo Ganna, Kim Heiduk and Geraint Thomas made frantic attempts to close the forty-second gap, but they barely succeeded.

Egan Bernal and Jonathan Castroviejo – originally designated as those who could possibly attempt the crossing – also had to work. After a battle of more than an hour, the ten adventurers were finally captured.

La Vuelta | Missed the flight? Million dollar team INEOS-Grenadiers has to chase with Ganna and Thomas

From ten to six

A little later, six riders rode away, but INEOS still had no riders. The names? Mattia Cattaneo (Soudal Quick-Step), Groves again (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Joel Nicolau (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA), Max Poole (Team DSM-Firmenich), Nicolas Prodhomme (AG2R Citroën Team) and Julius van den Berg (EF Education-EasyPost).

Jumbo-Visma slowly allowed the gap to grow, with some men in the lead. Just under a minute and a half turned out to be the maximum lead, the leaders understood that they were not aiming for victory. After taking maximum points in the intermediate sprint in Unquera, Groves was the first to be overtaken by the peloton. Cattaneo also quickly had enough, after which the other four were also a bird for the cat.

Fireworks

From that moment on it was a long sprint towards the foot of the final climb, just under five kilometers long. The only reason that this was almost nine percent average was an ‘intermediate kilometer’ at four percent average. So the riders knew what else was on the menu.

Jumbo-Visma started from the front, with Hungarian champion Attila Valter in the lead. Soon the first part of the platoon consisted of only twenty men. With four kilometers to go, Jonas Vingegaard shot away like a comet. Wout Poels gave chase.

The Dutchman found himself somewhat disappointed, Vingegaard soon seemed to be on his way to victory, because the other favorites came to a complete standstill. Only Finn Fisher-Black of UAE Team Emirates still kept him in sight. Bauke Mollema accelerated from the group of classification riders, but that was already one minute behind the leader.

The Danish Tour winner pulled off an incredible feat, because in the group of other favorites they only started working shortly before the red rag. After João Almeida, Roglic was the next to accelerate. Enric Mas and Juan Ayuso joined, while Kuss had a difficult moment. Vingegaard won his second stage of the Vuelta, after his previous stage victory at the Tourmalet. He did this without cheering exuberantly, as a tribute to Van Hooydonck.

La Vuelta | Jonas Vingegaard’s decisive attack on the way to victory in Bejes

Result stages 16: Liencres Playa – Bejes (120 km):

1. Jonas Vingegaard – 2:38:23
2. Finn Fisher-Black – + 0.43
3. Wout Poels – + 0.49
4. Michael Storer – + 0.55
5. Juan Ayuso – + 1.01
6. Aleksandr Vlasov – zt.
7. Enric Mas – zt.
8. Primoz Roglic – st.
9. Mikel Landa – + 1.05
10. Sepp Kuss – currently.

Where are you looking?

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2023-09-12 16:04:00
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