A brutal and spectacular stage 20 saw Enric Mas (Quick-Step Floors) conquer his first Grand Tour success on Saturday. The 23 year-old Spanish climber dominated Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana) in a mano a mano up the Coll de la Gallina and moves second on the general classification. The red jersey Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) dropped 23 seconds in the final climb but Alejandro Valverde (Movistar Team) cracked and lost more than 3 minutes. With a lead of 1’46’’ on Enric Mas, the British climber is set to win La Vuelta 18 on Sunday in Madrid.
The battle was on from the start, with the riders immediately facing the Coll de la Comella (4.3km, 8.6%). Salvatore Puccio (Team Sky) quickly opened a small gap but Lotto Soudal reeled them in so Thomas De Gendt could take the points at the summit. Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida) accelerated in the following downhill and about 15 riders followed him. Thomas De Gendt was part of them and he went solo at the front in the Coll de Beixalis (7.1km, 8%). Nibali was chasing him with Rafal Majka (Bora-Hansgrohe), Michael Woods (Education First-Drapac), Michal Kwiatkowski (Team Sky) and Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo).
Quintana and Astana set the final battle
With 80km to go, Nairo Quintana (Movistar Team) went for a few first digs in this climb but Simon Yates’ Mitchelton-Scott and Steven Kruijswijk’s LottoNL-Jumbo controlled him. Thomas De Gendt took 10 more KOM points at the summit and his five chasers joined him in the downhill. Dario Cataldo, Omar Fraile (Astana), Nicolas Roche (BMC Racing Team), Nelson Oliveira (Movistar), Amanuel Ghebreigzhabier (Dimension Data), Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha Alpecin), David de la Cruz (Team Sky), Jai Hindley (Team Sunweb) and Jesus Herrada (Cofidis) also joined the front of the race in the third climb of the day, the Coll de Ordino (9.8km, 7.1%).
Jesus Herrada went on his own in the final kilometre of ascent while Astana upped the tempo, caught the chasers and cut the lead down to 1’20’’. The Spanish all-rounder was caught by his breakaway companions with 46km to go. Astana was still driving the bunch with a gap of 1’07’’. Jon Izaguirre (Bahrain-Merida) and Tony Gallopin (AG2R-La Mondiale) were already missing in the main group.
Mas rises, Valverde cracks
Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana) attacked with 38km to go. He got back to the front of the race with the help of Fraile and Cataldo but was then caught right at the summit. Nairo Quintana accelerated again in the downhill and was joined by Lopez just ahead of the penultimate climb of La Vuelta 18. Lopez set a strong pace to open a 20’’ gap. Simon Yates attacked at the summit and got back to the Colombian duo with Enric Mas (Quick-Step Floors) in the downhill, with 13km to go. The Valverde group was trailing by 22’’ with 10km to go.
Quintana let the group go at the bottom of the final climb. And Simon Yates also lost contact with 6km to go. The British climber limited his losses to 23’’ on the line while Enric Mas edged Miguel Angel Lopez on the line. With the support of Nairo Quintana, Alejandro Valverde lost more than 3 minutes and dropped fifth on the general classification, behind Mas, Lopez and Kruijswijk.
