‘Vuelta a Espana’: Liepiņš for the beginning of the second century; Roglič is close to victory

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On Saturday, cyclists completed a 178.2-kilometer-long and heavy-climbed section with a finish on Mount Covillia.

Although last year’s champion Roglič (Jumbo-Visma) lost almost half of his advantage over his closest follower Richard Karapas from Ecuador (“Ineos Grenadiers”) and it is now only 24 seconds instead of 45 seconds, the last flat stage on Sunday is unlikely to make a big difference in the overall score. The third is the British Hugh Card (“Education First”), who is 47 seconds behind the Slovenian driver.

“I don’t always control the situation,” said smiling Roglič after a stage with mountains, cobblestones, narrow village lanes and foggy clouds on the mountain tops.

“I’m very happy and it’s a really nice way to end the season,” he added.

Roglič, the versatile Jumbo-Visma rider, took the lead in the first stage in the overall standings of Vuelta a Espana and fought for it all the time with Karapas, with Ecuador leading five stages.

Roglich has yet to complete Sunday’s 139-kilometer leg on the way to Madrid, where the 2020 tour will almost certainly end with a group sprint.

Victory will be won after failure on their own “Tour de France“at the end, when he lost the lead on the penultimate day, winning his compatriot Tadeja Pogachar overall.

In the last kilometers of Saturday’s stage, this scenario threatened to happen again.

With three kilometers to go, Karapas fled Roglič and Kartti, driving up the last steep incline, which ended at an altitude of 1965 meters with a cold misty mountain peak.

Dens Martins, an Irishman from the Israel Cycling Academy, was one of the stage’s initial determinants.

In the second stage of this year’s tour, 24-year-old French driver Gudi from “Groupama – FDJ” won. He celebrated, throwing his head away and allowing the cry of victory with his arms outstretched.

Liepiņš lost 37 minutes and 38 seconds to the winner, which gave him 107th place.

Before the last stage, he loses more than four hours to the overall leader and is in 126th place.

On Sunday there will be 139.6 kilometers long final stage without ascents.

Spanish the tour will end on November 8 in Madrid. The first six days of the race overlapped with this year’s “Tour of Italy“.

This year, the first three stages of “Vuelta a Espana” were planned in the Netherlands, but due to a national pandemic, the prestigious cycling competition was refused. As a result, Vuelta a Espana will have only 18 stages this year, instead of 21.

For Liepiņš, this is his debut in one of the big tours. The main goal of “Trek – Segafredo” in this Spanish tour is to fight for victories in certain stages. Despite the fact that the tour is shortened to 18 stages, there are quite a few challenges in the categorized climbs and several mountain finishes. Sprinters have the opportunity to compete for victories in at least four stages, including the last stage with a finish in Madrid.

Mateo Mosketi was mentioned as the main contender for the team’s victories in the sprint, but he withdrew from the tour last week. It was at the beginning of the season that the Dobel player made his debut for the Trek – Segafredo team and helped Mosket win two cycling races in Spain and finished in the top ten.

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