On Saturday, the athletes had to cover a distance of 170 kilometers, which included four first and one third category ascents.
Honor (“Groupama – FDJ”) left the pellet on the first climb of the first category in Alto de la Colliaton, but already at the foot reached a rebound group, which in the last climb was reduced to five riders.
Five kilometers before the finish, the last stroke was made by the Spanish Mark Solers (“Movistar”), but he was followed only by Godi, who later in the last meters also broke away from Solera and won the first victory in one of the stages of the big tours.
Third place went to Michael Storers, a representative of the Sunweb unit from Australia.
For a long time, Liepiņš’s team member from Denmark Niklass Egs also drove in the leading group, but his efforts were not enough for the Latvian to finish in a high-value place. Egs lost a little more than 22 minutes to the leader and took the 59th place, while Liepiņš was 32 minutes and 17 seconds behind, finishing in the 124th position.
Saturday’s stage started a little later than planned, as the riders of the Ineos Grenadiers team were the initiators of a small strike, which was joined by the rest of the peleton. The cyclists were not at peace with the decision of the judges made on Friday, which determined that the group of the first eight riders had been pulled out enough not to give all the riders the same finish time.
For this reason, Richard Carapass, an Ecuadorian, lost the leader’s shirt, which has so far reached Slovenian Primož Roglič (“Jumbo – Visma”).
The leader of the overall standings is Rogličs, but Karapass has also spent the same amount of time in the stages, who is 25 seconds ahead of the Irish Den Martin (“Israel Start-Up Nation”). Liepiņš loses more than two hours and ten minutes to the leader, taking the 102nd position in the overall rating.
On Sunday, the 109.4-kilometer-long section will end with a climb to the Alto de l’Angliru mountain range in Asturias, ending 1238 meters higher.
The Spanish tour will finish on November 8 in Madrid. The first six days of the race overlapped with this year’s Giro d’Italia.
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 has been shortened to 18 stages, there will be quite a few challenges in the 47 categorized climbs and several mountain finishes. Sprinters will 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 this week, so Liepiņš became the first number in the team. It was at the beginning of the season that the Dobel player made his debut for the “Trek – Segafredo” team, helped Mosket win two cycling races in Spain and finished in the top ten.
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