La Vuelta (st. 13)
Mas, López remain 4th, 5th overall after another day of extreme heat, with some brief echelon attempts, on Extremadura soil. New climb Pico Villuercas to be tackled on Saturday, then famous Ávila ascents on Sunday.
Despite some crosswinds with about 60km to go –which all six Movistar Team riders covered at the front- and the fast pace towards the finish, which caused some splits -with Bernal (IGD), 5″ ahead, notably taking advantage-, Enric Mas and Miguel Ángel López (Movistar Team) had overall no problems during stage 13 of La Vuelta.
The long journey (more than 200km) from Belmez to Villanueva de la Serena, under intense heat and with a surprise victory for Sénéchal (DQT), one of the leadour riders for green jersey holder Fabio Jakobsen, served as prelude to two big mountain days in Extremadura and Ávila, starting with Saturday’s Pico Villuercas climb.
The highest mountain of the region (1600m), in the ‘Montes de Toledo’, will be the final hurdle (almost 15km at 6.2% average) into a 165km route also featuring the Cat-3 ascent of Berzocana and the steeper Collado de Ballesteros (Cat-1), located about 70km from the end and with three kilometers at 14%.
Cover picture (c): Photo Gomez Sport
- 01 Florian Sénéchal Deceuninck - Quick Step 4h58'23"
- 02 Matteo Trentin UAE Team Emirates "
- 03 Alberto Dainese Team DSM +2"
- 20 Miguel Ángel López Movistar Team +11"
- 28 Enric Mas Movistar Team "
- 36 Imanol Erviti Movistar Team "
- 54 José Joaquín Rojas Movistar Team +30"
- 116 Carlos Verona Movistar Team +1'39"
- 150 Nelson Oliveira Movistar Team +2'20"
- 01 Odd Eiking Intermarché-Wanty Gobert 50h31'52"
- 02 Guillaume Martin Cofidis +58"
- 03 Primoz Roglic Jumbo - Visma +1'56"
- 04 Enric Mas Movistar Team +2'31"
- 05 Miguel Ángel López Movistar Team +3'28"
- 23 Carlos Verona Movistar Team +28'06"
- 74 José Joaquín Rojas Movistar Team +1h24'51"
- 90 Imanol Erviti Movistar Team +1h33'04"
- 94 Nelson Oliveira Movistar Team +1h34'54"