Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo) won stage 16 of La Vuelta 22 in a five-man sprint after Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) attacked in the streets of Tomares. The Slovenian 3-time winner of the Spanish Grand Tour opened a gap while Remco Evenepoel (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl) suffered a puncture inside the last 3km… but Roglic crashed with 75m to go. Pascal Ackermann (UAE Team Emirates) and Danny van Poppel (Bora-Hansgrohe) rounded out the podium of the day with a gap of 8’’ to the first part of the bunch. Evenepoel retains La Roja for the 11th stage in a row, the longest run since Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) took his first GC win in 2019. The favorites for the overall victory will reignite their battles on Wednesday with an unprecedented summit finish at Monasterio de Tentudia.
The final week of La Vuelta 22 begins with a 189.4km from Sanlucar de Barrameda to Tomares. The course is mostly flat but the finish could prove tricky for the sprinters. 142 riders return to action, without Esteban Chaves (EF Education-EasyPost) nor Maxim van Gils (Lotto Soudal).
Trek-Segafredo and Cofidis control the day
Ander Okamika (Burgos-BH) and Luis Angel Maté (Euskaltel-Euskadi) attack from the start to quickly make the break.
This is Okamika’s fourth day at the front in La Vuelta 22 while Maté is up there to deliver on the promise he made ahead of the race to donate one tree to plant in La Sierra Bermeja for every kilometre he spends in breakaways.
Mads Pedersen’s Trek-Segafredo and Bryan Coquard’s Cofidis quickly take the reins of the bunch to control the gap under 4 minutes.
Into the last 50km, the same two teams still drive the bunch and the gap is down to 2 minutes. They are eventually caught with 13km to go, after 176km at the front.
Pedersen rises, Roglic goes down
Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) ignites a crazy finale with an attack with 2.5km to go. At the same moment, Remco Evenepoel (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl) indicates he suffers a puncture.
Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo), Pascal Ackermann (UAE Team Emirates), Danny van Poppel (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Fred Wright (Bahrain Victorious) follow Roglic’s move. The Danish star powers to victory while Roglic touches Wright in the sprint and hits the deck.
Evenepoel crosses the line with a gap of 3’10’’. Since his mechanical happened inside the last 3km, he is classified with the same time as Quentin Pacher (Groupama-FDJ), who led the first bunch through the line with a gap of 8’’.
