Strong attack gives Tadej Pogacar third stage victory and podium position in Vuelta a España, Roglic confirms GC lead
Sep 14 2019 11:34 pm CET
Photo of Tadej Pogacar by Jonathan Roorda / CyclingPub.com
Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) has taken his third stage victory in the 2019 Vuelta a España and climbed to the third position of the General Classification of the race. Primoz Roglic has confirmed the overall win of the race, with one last stage to go.
The last mountain stage of the 2019 edition of the Spanish grand tour was 190.4 kilometres long over a route that featured two climbs of the first category, two of the second category and two cat-3 including the final ascent on the Plataforma de Gredos. A group of nine riders created the escape of the day in the first kilometres of the stage and included names like Ruben Guerreiro, Tao Geoghegan Hart, Nicolas Edet and Mark Padun.
The peloton was very active from the beginning, attempting to leave the race leader Primoz Roglic isolated from the start, but all the attacks were unsuccessful. The favourites rode together for the next stretch of the stage, while in the front Guerreiro and Geoghegan Hart were left riding by themselves.
On the penultimate ascent of the day, Astana set a high pace that left a very reduced group and with 42 kilometres to go, López launched an attack and was followed by Roglic, Nairo Quintana, Alejandro Valverde and Tadej Pogacar. Soon they were joined by some more of the remaining riders of the reduced pack and Jakob Fuglsang took to the front of the pack to keep the high speed going.
Shortly after, López attacked again but the rest of the favourites were able to follow him. At 38 kilometres to go, Pogacar launched an attack and none of the GC riders tried to follow him, while minutes later Valverde also made a change of pace but suddenly stopped and was caught by the rest.
The Slovenian of UAE Team Emirates reached the two men in front and soon left them behind, continuing by himself and making the gap bigger with the rest of the GC riders. Astana and Movistar tried to pull the pack to reduce the distance with Pogacar, as López was losing the chance to fight for a podium position, Quintana was being left out of the top-three and even Valverde was at risk of dropping to the third GC place.
With a bit more than two kilometres to go, Valverde launched an attack and left López struggling behind while Roglic and Quintana kept at his wheel, but the Colombian of Movistar also dropped metres later. Pogacar crossed the finish line by himself, taking his third stage victory in the race, and climbing to the third overall position.
Valverde managed to save his second position on the podium, while Roglic confirmed his virtual overall win by crossing the line in the fifth place.
REPORT: Strong attack gives Tadej Pogacar third stage victory and podium position in Vuelta a España, Roglic confirms GC lead https://t.co/7l1bZ0gDUq#LaVuelta19
— CyclingPub (@CyclingPub) September 14, 2019
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