Would we get a normal race? It must have been just about the most frequently asked question in the small Barco de Valdorras. At the start a number of activists had already gathered, but they did not bother the competition. The riders had taken a clear position through their CPA trade union: if it again comes to a dangerous situation, they would neutralize the competition immediately and on their own initiative.
Fortunately it didn’t come that far. And despite the rain we immediately got course. Mads Pedersen was the first attacker, but the Dane of Lidl Trek was quickly caught. Little by little, a flight of twelve riders came about with one countryman, Luca Van Boven. Tiberi and the Colombian Tejada, eleventh in the general classification, had also obtained their ticket.
But as we already wrote in the preview, everything would depend on the mood of the classification riders. Did they want to go for the stage victory and the accompanying bonifications? Given the time difference of barely 48 seconds between leader Vingegaard and Runner Up Almeida, that did not seem crazy. The lead of the twelve refugees never rose above two minutes and in the peloton the team mates of red sweater fingered the command. Deaned on the final climb to the Alto de El Morredero wanted to put the dots on the i? It seemed like it.
Kelderman and Van Baarle kept the twelve refugees perfectly under control in the service of their leader Jonas Vingegaard. In the meantime, images of stormy weather conditions came from at the finish. For a moment it was even feared that the finish should be moved again, but luckily it didn’t come that far.
Spectacular
It had to happen on the Alto de El Morredero. Not a simple cost, this rather unknown climb near World Cup Ponferrada. Almost nine kilometers of climbing to more than nine percent on average, it had to be enough for a smashing final. All the more so the kilometers before the official start almost continuously rose. Almeida or Vingegaard, it was the question of the day.
Tiberi and Tejada tried to avoid the dance in the leading group, but that was impossible. In the peloton, the riders of Red Bull Bora Hansgrohe performed the pace in the service of Jai Hindley who visited the third place in the general classification of Tom Pidcock. Even before the foot of the real final climb, the refugees were there for the effort.
And whether the Alto de El Morredero was a murder climb! From the first meters the road ran steeply, with strips of up to sixteen percent. The first six kilometers of the climb were of a rarely seen difficulty. Who dared to attack first? Visma – Lease a Bike already tried to roll out the red carpet. With Tullett, Jorgensen and Kuss, Jonas Vingegaard had no fewer than three servants in the area.
Little by little, the leading group was thinned until we just left a handful of riders. It was surprisingly Jai Hindley who was the first to accelerate. Vingegaard, the surprising American Riccitello and Pidcock followed, not Almeida. But Almeida is a diesel, one kilometer away he was already in the wheel of the four front runners.
Forest fires
The desolate landscape – the result of forest fires – did not inspire Vingegaard to attack, even after Almeida gave signs of weakness several times. Hindley continued to determine the pace, his teammate Pellizzari handed out the first pin pricks.
Behind the Italian, carrier of the white sweater, was poker. Pellizzari did not let it get his heart and drove solo to his first professional victory ever. Tom Pidcock spurted to second place, for Jai Hindley. Vingegaard and Almeida finished in places four and five and handled next to the bonifications, the Danish red sweater built its lead with two negligible seconds. Wasn’t this anymore?
Vingegaard: “Didn’t have my best day”
Despite a lot of work from his team mates, Rode Sweater Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease A Bike) has not succeeded in a new stage victory in the Tour of Spain on Wednesday at the Alto de El Morredero. Afterwards the Dane admitted that he had not had his best legs.
“To be honest, I didn’t have my best day. But I did survive,” it sounded. “On the days when you don’t feel one hundred percent, you have to survive. If you get through for about days without a loss of time, then it has been a good day.” On the final climb there was a short conversation between Vingegaard and his challenger Joao Almeida (Uae Emirates-XRG), but according to the Deen there was little: “To be honest, I don’t remember what he said. It was just a short moment. It was something about Giulio (Pellizzari, the later stage winner, ed.).”
Thursday follows the important time trial in Valladolid. Two years ago the Dane got a lel of more than a minute in a similar time trial in the same city. “That was a terrible time trial of mine. Hopefully I can now make up for that and finish a good time trial.”
In the stand, Vingegaard now has fifty seconds margin on Almeida. He built it mainly in the initial phase of the Vuelta. Since last week, the Dane is not 100 percent fit.
