Saturday, August 24th Grade 8
Ubeda – Cazorla 159km (mountain/mountain finish)
The 8th stage of the Vuelta a España is a 159km mountain stage that starts from Ubeda and heads east into the mountainous region, heading south on the way to Cazorla. The course’s elevation gain is less than 3,000m, but the final grade 3 mountain, Sierra de Cazorla (distance 4.8km / average 7.1%) has a maximum gradient of 20% at the start of the climb. By the end, the average jumps to 13.5%. Although it was not a stage where there would be a big difference in time, it was expected to be an uphill battle between the main competitors in general.
Although the reason was not revealed, Elie Gebert (France, Alcair B&B Hotels) was not running on this day. Also starting, Brian Cocard (France, Cofidis) got off his bike midway through and left the race without a win. The players, who later left Ubeda in the south of Spain, engaged in a strong fight of attacks from the beginning, trying to escape.
Among the players aiming to escape were Wout van Aert (Belgium, Wisma Ries-A-Bijk) and Marc Soler (Spain, Emirates Team UAE), who won the previous day and has Maillot Puntos (point prize jersey). However, no action was taken and the first hour was held at high speed, with an average speed of almost 50km/h. With 110km remaining, Mauro Schmidt (Switzerland, Jayco AlUla) and three others took the lead in the final race.
After that, the following group, including Yon Izaguirre (Spain, Cofidis), caught up with them, leaving eight people running. On the other hand, the main group is controlled by Decathlon AG2R Ramondial, the management team. At the end of the previous day, Ben O’Connor (Australia), with Mayorrojo, held the lead by 4 minutes 45 seconds, but O’Connor was ahead of other overall leaders such as Primoš Roglič (Slovakia, Red Bull Bora Hansgrohe), who was in 2nd place overall I asked for a chance to make up the time difference.
By the time they entered the first Class 3 hill with 60.9km remaining, the gap between the race and the Proton was 4 minutes and 36 seconds. Heiss Reimreise (Netherlands, DSM Firmenich Post NL) dropped out, leaving just seven riders, while Swiss Road champion Schmidt went over the top in first place after overtaking Mathis Lebert (The France, Arcea B&B Hotels). In the main group, Israel Premier Tech, whose Michael Woods (Canada) is good on steep hills, sent players to lead the race and reduced the gap to one minute on this mountain.
On the long downhill stretch around 26km, Schmidt jumped out, and Aroldo Tejada (Colombia, Astana Kazakstan) caught him, leaving two riders in the lead. In the Proton, who were chasing them with a difference of three and a half minutes, there was a scene where Van Aert fell off the bike and quickly climbed back on his bike and returned to the group. At the start of the race, the first two riders caught up with the rest, and again the seven riders continued through the small and downhill stages.
In the intermediate sprint, Tejada passed without a fight and the gap between him and the rest of the pack narrowed to two and a half minutes. In the peloton, Israel continued to lead the way, closing the gap with last year’s Paris-Tour winner Riley Cean (USA), who was competing in the Vuelta for the first time.
Finally, the escape group reached the third class mountain, Sierra de Cazorla (distance 4.8km / average 7.1%). Tejada made a move in the early stages of the race, when a steep section appeared, knocking down everyone except Oiel Lazcano (Spain, Movistar). Daniel Martinez (Colombia, Red Bull Bora-Hansgrohe) quickly picked up the pace of the peloton, which started a minute late.
But, at the same time, a disaster occurs in front of the group. Although none of the players were seriously injured as it was an uphill section, others such as Sepp Kuss (USA, Visma Lisavaik) and Alexander Vlasov (Russia, Red Bull Bora-Hansgrohe ). In addition to crashing his car, Martinez, who had reduced the number of participants by moving at high speed on steep sections by up to 20%, completed his work, and O’Connor , Richard Carapaz (Ecuador, EF Education Easy Post ) and others followed Roglič, who took the lead, an elite group of eight was established.
Tejada and Lazcano were now leading with a difference of 39 seconds, and Luca Vergarito (Italy, Alpecin Deceuninck) joined them, making the number three. In Roglič’s group, his followers went up with him on a gentle slope, and while EF set the pace of the group for a short time, Roglič, who did not want to go to the finish line with a large group, accelerated. While Joao Almeida (Portugal, Emirates Team UAE), who was in 3rd place overall, was quickly behind, O’Connor managed to hold on.
With 2km to go, Roglič stepped up again in the elite group, closing in on the lead by 20 seconds. Seeing that O’Connor was behind, Roglič kept a high pace, with Enric Mas (Spain, Movistar) the only one keeping up. Tejada, who held on until the end, was caught by Roglič and Mass with 900m left, and O’Connor, who was behind him, went to the top at his own pace.
Masu got in front of Roglič with 200m to go, but Roglič joined him and took the lead 75m from the end. Without much of a fight, Roglič crossed the finish line first. This was his second victory in the competition after the fourth stage.
“I wasn’t aiming for the win, but it was an opportunity, so I went for it. It was a solid format that suited me, and it was hot. Also , fortunately, my legs felt good today,” Rog said about the reason for his victory. When asked about the next day’s stage 9, which includes three first-class mountains, he replied, “I’ll do my best, it depends on how the pain I’m still feeling will affect me.” to celebrate this victory.”
With 10 seconds of bonus time, Roglič was able to close the gap on O’Connor, who finished 46 seconds behind (17th place), to 3 minutes and 49 seconds. Almeida, who was 3rd overall, dropped out of the overall race with a delay of 4 minutes and 53 seconds, while Kuss, who lost his car, finished 1 minute and 7 seconds behind in 21st place. Loss of time was kept to a minimum.
2024-08-25 00:01:00
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