Vuelta a España Stage Report: Urko Berrade (Kern Pharma) won the eighteenth stage of the Vuelta a España. The Spaniard won from a big break, giving his team a third Vuelta victory. Mauro Schmid (Jayco-AlUla) and Pau Miquel (also Kern) finished second and third. Among the favourites, Mikel Landa, Adam Yates and Sepp Kuss had a bad day. They lost a lot of time after the race was split on the climb of the Puerto Herrera. Ben O’Connor remains the overall leader.
The final K of stage 18
Vuelta race director, Fernando Escartín: “This mid-mountain stage in Álava, with two Category 2 climbs and one Category 1 climb, has the potential to eliminate the purest sprinters from the peloton. Fast riders who manage to do well in the mid-mountain could become favourites in stages such as this one, which is likely to result in a reduced peloton sprinting towards the finish-line.”
Stage 18 profile
Stage 18: The Vuelta will be in the Basque Country for a day for stage 18, between Vittoria Gasteiz and Maeztu. This should be a stage for an escapees, with a few Basque climbs in the final. The start is in the Basque capital of Vitoria-Gasteiz. The biggest climbs in the stage are after 77 kilometres and 130 kilometres; the Alto de Rivas de Tereso (11.1km at 3.4%) and the Puerto Herrera (5.5km at 8.4%). The second climb could cause a split. After the Puerto Herrera, there are 45 kilometres without any categorised climbs to the finish, but it is not flat. The road rises for 3 kilometres at 5%, 7.5 kilometres from the finish.
T-Rex was at the start – Soudal’s very strong glue
The eighteenth stage of the Vuelta was expected to be one for the puncheurs in a break. The difficult stage started in Vitoria-Gasteiz and from the gun there was an exceptionally high pace, which pulled many riders back. Stefan Küng, two-time stage winner Pablo Castrillo and Riley Sheehan, all failed to make their moves stick.
Sepp Kuss probably not having the Vuelta he hoped for
The pace in the peloton was so high that splits started to appear. Overall leader, Ben O’Connor, missed one acceleration and ended up in a chasing group. The Decathlon-AG2R-La Mondiale rider eventually closed the gap, but it took some of his strength. After 45 kilometres there was a proper break.
New bike for Kaden Groves – Not sure about that green
It was a large group of 42 riders, including: Steven Kruijswijk, Attila Valter (Visma | Lease a Bike), Brandon McNulty, Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates), Jhonatan Narváez (INEOS Grenadiers), Mauri Vansevenant (Soudal Quick-Step), Mathias Vacek (Lidl-Trek), Aleksandr Vlasov (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe), Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Thomas De Gendt (Lotto Dstny), Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ), Oier Lazkano (Movistar), Mauro Schmid (Jayco AlUla), Max Poole, Tim Naberman (dsm-firmenich-PostNL), Ion Izagirre (Cofidis), Harold Tejada (Astana Qazaqstan) and Castrillo (Equipo Kern Pharma).
Yes, we are in the Basque Country – Euskadi
Three teams had missed the break: Intermarché-Wanty, Decathlon-AG2R-La Mondiale and home Basque team, Euskaltel-Euskadi. Euskaltel-Euskadi put themselves on the front of the peloton to pull the break back, but that was hopeless. They didn’t give up and Mikel Bazkarra and Gotzon Martín attacked together on one of the climbs and were joined by Victor Lafay and George Bennett and some others, hoping to get to the leading group. That didn’t work. Küng, Schmid and Vacek had attacked the large group and had a lead of 30 seconds.
Riley Sheehan (Israel-Premier Tech) on the attack
The three held off the second group for a while, but on the Puerto Herrera (5.6km at 8.4%), the leaders were all back together. Some of the break riders had been dropped on the Cat.1 climb of the Puerto Herrera. The break of 42 was thinned down to only 10 riders at the summit. Soler was the first to the top and took over the KOM jersey from teammate Jay Vine.
Everyone wanted to be in the break
In the peloton, which was almost 10 minutes down, there was a lot of action, thanks to Richard Carapaz, who powered on the front several times. The Ecuadorian didn’t ride away from Roglič group, but did put some other favourites in trouble. Mikel Landa, 5th overall, Sepp Kuss and Adam Yates were not in the group and were soon 30 seconds behind. That gap grew bigger, because just before the top of the Puerto Herrera, Carapaz attacked again and a few more riders were dropped, including overall leader O’Connor. After the top of the climb, Carapaz had help from two teammates who were in the early break, this was very dangerous for the dropped GC riders.
Everyone wanted to be in the break
O’Connor managed to catch the Roglič group, including Mas and Carapaz, on the descent. After this merger, the group pushed on as the GC leaders were joined by some of their teammates from the early break. Landa had to do it on his own, his teammates from the break were too late to come back to help much. The Spaniard received no help from Yates and Kuss and lost a lot of time.
There was a big battle for the split
At the front, 13 riders would fight for the stage victory. One of them would take the honours: Kruijswijk, Soler, Cattaneo, Vlasov, Vacek, Küng, Lazkano, Schmid, Poole, Izagirre and the three riders of Equipo Kern Pharma; Castrillo, Urko Berrade and Pau Miquel. They continued to work well together for a long time after the Puerto Herrera. With 13 kilometres to go, Cataneo was told by the team DS that he had to drop down to help Landa.
There was over 40 riders in the break of the day
With 7 kilometres to go, the first attack came. It was Kruijswijk who chose a good moment to attack and it was Berrade who managed to get on his wheel. The two made a good gap, because the others looked at each other. It was a good attempt by Kruijswijk, but he couldn’t finish it off. Berrade jumped, Kruijswijk couldn’t follow. Berrade was very strong and soon had a lead on his pursuers. Castrillo and Miquel, Berrade’s teammates, sat on every attack to make sure Kern Pharma was on its way to a third Vuelta stage victory
Three riders didn’t want to wait
The pursuit never really got going and Berrade kept up his pace all the way to the finish line. Equipo Kern Pharma also took third place with Miquel, behind Schmid in second.
Swiss champ, Mauro Schmid (Jayco AlUla) was off the front again
Stage 16 winner Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates) was also up there
The O’Connor/Roglič group crossed the finish line almost 7 minutes later. Landa, who eventually had help from some teammates, lost more than 3 minutes and dropped to 10th overall. Kuss and Yates finished with the Spaniard.
Another win for Kern Pharma – Urko Berrade
Stage winner, Urko Berrade (Kern Pharma): “Without a doubt, it’s a dream. The stage closer to home, with all my family watching me, friends, in the last stages of La Vuelta… When there are so few opportunities left it seemed complicated to get a stage. I’ve been close in others, but it’s incredible. As we had strength in numbers after the hardest climb of the day, I’ve been controlling the group so that Pau [Miquel] could have his chance as an our fast man. But at the end, that last climb, with everyone pretty cooked, they told me: ‘You all have a chance, try it.’ I tried from there almost without looking back, I tried not to look back. They told me: ‘To the finish line, to the finish line!’ I didn’t see myself as the winner until I crossed the finish line. No doubt it comes from a great previous work that we have done. Since the beginning of the season we had La Vuelta in mind. We have made an impressive preparation, and this is not the result of chance. At the beginning of La Vuelta, Juanjo [Oroz], the team manager, told me: ‘You have to become famous’. And it’s difficult for me because I’m not a big media guy, but I think, with this victory, maybe I have a chance.”
Another day in red for Ben O’Connor
Overall leader, Ben O’Connor (Decathlon-AG2R-La Mondiale): “No, absolutely [I didn’t expect Richard Carapaz to attack]. In the end, it’s a bit of benefit for all of us at the front, but it was not easy. You could see how fast we were riding. It wasn’t an easy stage at all, to be honest. There are no easy days at La Vuelta a España this year. [Will these efforts have an impact in the following days?] Probably not, because we raced every single day, and everyone is just tired. But somehow, I’m still managing to crack out some pretty good numbers, so I don’t think it makes any difference now. And I’m still in the lead! It’s nice to have it for another day. I don’t know if it’s 13 or 14 days, a long time. I’ve loved it and I enjoyed it a lot.”
# Keep it PEZ for the Vuelta a España big finale. #
Vuelta a España Stage 18 Result:
1. Urko Berrade Fernandez (Spa) Equipo Kern Pharma in 4:00:52
2. Mauro Schmid (Sui) Jayco AlUla at 0:04
3. Pau Miquel Delgado (Spa) Equipo Kern Pharma
4. Max Poole (GB) dsm-firmenich-PostNL
5. Aleksander Vlasov (-) Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe
6. Oier Lazkano (Spa) Movistar
7. Ion Izagirre Insausti (Spa) Cofidis
8. Mathias Vacek (CZ) Lidl-Trek
9. Pablo Castrillo Zapater (Spa) Equipo Kern Pharma
10. Steven Kruijswijk (Ned) Visma | Lease a Bike at 0:11.
Vuelta a España Overall After Stage 18:
1. Ben O’Connor (Aus) Decathlon-AG2R-La Mondiale in 72:48:46
2. Primož Roglič (Slo) Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe at 0:05
3. Enric Mas Nicolau (Spa) Movistar at 1:25
4. Richard Carapaz (Ecu) EF Education-EasyPost at 1:46
5. David Gaudu (Fra) Groupama-FDJ at 3:48
6. Carlos Rodriguez Cano (Spa) INEOS Grenadiers at 3:53
7. Mattias Skjelmose Jensen (Den) Lidl-Trek at 4:00
8. Florian Lipowitz (Ger) Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe at 4:27
9. Pavel Sivakov (Fra) UAE Team Emirates at 5:19
10. Mikel Landa Meana (Spa) Soudal Quick-Step at 5:38.
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