photo credits @ La Vuelta
Eddie Dunbar (Jayco-AlUla) came from nowhere to outfox his fellow escapees in the final kilometer of Stage 11 of the Vuelta a España today, while Ben O’Connor (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) lost valuable time to his red jersey rivals.
But as Dunbar masterminded his win, Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) plotted his own time gains on the race leader O’Connor. Some hefty pacing from his Red Bull team on the fourth and final climb preceded a big acceleration from the triple champion, with Roglic riding clear with Enric Mas (Movistar) after putting O’Connor on the ropes.
Roglic and Mas crossed the finish line 37 seconds clear of the battling O’Connor, who limited his losses to stay 3’16” clear of Roglic in the general classification.
Race Highlights
The peloton tackled the second of four stages held on Galician roads, with 4 categorized ascents and more than 3,000m of elevation as the race looped around the Campus Tecnologico Cortizo in Padron (166.4km).
Such terrain inspired aggressive riders, with Victor Campenaerts (Lotto Dstny) leading the way over the first climb of the day, the Puerto San Xusto.
The Belgian strongman was joined by 38 more attackers on the valley towards the 2nd climb of the day, the Puerto Aguasantas, with Xandro Meurisse immediately setting off from this group and opening up a gap of 1’, with Israel Premier Tech driving the chase group, their kiwi climber George Bennett being the main GC threat (16th in the overall standings at the start of the stage, +9’50’’). Meanwhile, the gap to the bunch went out to 6’15’’ with Ben O’Connor’s Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale setting the pace.
After some 60 kilometers alone at the front, Meurisse is caught with 32km to go. Isasa then commenced a counter-attack but he was quickly reeled in. Meanwhile, Movistar up the ante in the bunch.
Verona, Zana and Berrade led the way to the summit, with Poole bridging the gap as they got to the descent. Berrade and Verona later tried a counter-attack, only to have Dunbar sail past everyone inside the last kilometer to take his first Grand Tour stage win.
Behind them, Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe up the ante on the ascent, with Roglic attacking.
Mas was the only one to follow, with Matthias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek), Carlos Rodriguez (Ineos Grenadiers), David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) and Mikel Landa (T-Rex Quick-Step) managing to join them, while Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) lost 15’’ on the line.
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