A hard wet day of racing in the Pyrenees saw Ion Izagirre (Astana) fly to victory through the breakaway while Richard Carapaz (Ineos Grenadiers) took La Roja from Primoz Roglic’s shoulders as the new overall leader of La Vuelta 2020. Ion Izagirre dropped his breakaway companions with a strong attack 3km away from the summit finish. Richard Carapaz finished 12th of the stage and gained 43’’ on Roglic. The Slovenian is now 4th overall, behind Carapaz, Hugh Carthy and Dan Martin.
The summit finish in Aramon Formigal at the end of an explosive first week of racing inspires aggressive racing as the riders remember Alberto Contador’s ride on the same roads in 2016. Attacks fly from the start, with Rémi Cavagna (Deceuninck-Quick Step) leading the early attempts. The Frenchman is on his own at the front a km 13.
He is soon joined by a strong group of attackers: Cattaneo (Deceuninck-Quick Step), Costa, Henao (UAE), Power, Storer, Sütterlin (Sunweb), I. Izagirre, G. Izagirre (Astana), Van Baarle (Ineos Grenadiers), Cort Nielsen, Woods (Education First), Jauregui (AG2R), Zimmermann (CCC) G. Martin, Lafay, Perichon (Cofidis), Valgren (NTT), Arcas, Verona (Movistar), Hivert (Total Direct Energie), Amezqueta (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) and Cabedo (Burgos-BH).
Roglic in trouble
Gorka Izagirre only trails by 3’37’’ on GC. He leads the virtual overall standings as the gap hits 3’45’’ in the first climb of the day, the Alto de Peralba. Primoz Roglic’s Jumbo-Visma control the gap around 4’ and Dan Martin’s Israel Start-Up Nation start working at the front of the bunch ahead of the second climb, the Alto de Cotefablo. Guillaume Martin chases the KOM points and the gap slightly decreases: 3’30’’ at the summit, with 40.9km to go.
Gorka Izagirre accelerates on the downhill and opens a 45’’ gap to his breakaway companions. Cameron Wurf (Ineos Grenadiers) also ups the ante in the peloton… and Primoz Roglic is among the riders forced to chase on the valley to get back to the main group. He bridges a 20’’ gap with the help of George Bennett 21km away from the line.
All in on the final climb
The final climb of the day (14.4km with irregular gradients and an average of 4.7%) sees riders battle it out for the stage and for La Roja. At the front, Gorka Izagirre is caught with 7km to go. But his brother Ion attacks 4km further away and nobody can keep up with his pace en route to his first La Vuelta stage victory, after his previous successes on the roads of the Tour de France and the Giro d’Italia. Michael Woods finishes second ahead of Rui Costa.
In the peloton, Movistar put the hammer down to try and make the most of Roglic’s isolation. Hugh Carthy (EF Pro Cycling) proves to be the strongest among the GC favourites, finishing 8th (+48’’), 5’’ ahead of Richard Carapaz and Marc Soler (Movistar). Primoz Roglic finishes 20th, with a gap of 1’38’’.
