The best stage of La Vuelta turned out to be the only one, next to the last one in Madrid, without a single mountain pass. It was a memorable day in which the Movistar brilliantly burst the race to raise Nairo Quintana from the sixth to the second position of the general and, incidentally, discovered the weaknesses of the Jumbo-Visma, unable to clothe a Primoz Roglic that saved the day and maybe the red jersey thanks to Miguel Angel López's Astana.

The new career scenario leaves Quintana at 2:24 of the leader, 24 seconds less than his teammate Valverde, now third. An extraordinary scenario, given the previous circumstances, for Movistar in the face of the two decisive stages of tomorrow in the mountains of Madrid and Saturday in Gredos. The Spanish team recovers the two tricks it had before Los Machucos to try to win this Tour. If you play them as well as you have done on the way to Guadalajara, you will have serious options to get it.

The stage was practically energized since the start. 15 minutes after leaving Aranda de Duero, a gigantic getaway of almost 50 cyclists was formed. Nothing newsworthy if it was not because it was Nairo Quintana with three companions, Erviti, Rojas and Oliveira. And next to them, Kelderman with three gregarious, the Ineos with four men and the Deceuninck with seven !, all but one. Many good allies to open space.

Arcas, Pedrero and Soler

The scenario immediately turned into a threat to Roglic, who saw the advantage grow and grow without remedy. The wind, strong and continuous, did not help. The fear soon reached Pogacar, López and Majka, who saw their positions in the general in danger, from the third to the fifth, so the UAE, the Astana and the Bora began to collaborate in the persecution.

Midway through the stage, the advantage of the Quintana group reached more than six minutes. Shortly after, Movistar took advantage of a steepness to raise the bet and finish busting the race. Arcas, Pedrero and Soler, the three that remained with Valverde, hit a tremendous acceleration that eliminated all the Jumbo except Roglic. At one point, the leader, Valverde, Soler, Pogacar, López and Majka, were left alone. The movement reduced the distance with the getaway, of course, but it was a long-term investment that worked. Brilliant Movistar strategy.

Portentous 'Luisle'

Because half a dozen gregarious people who worked to reduce the gap were directly eliminated. Roglic remained in a very delicate position, but the Astana appeared to remove the chestnuts from the fire. 'Superman' opted to burn his teammates to safeguard his podium options and ordered Gorka Izagirre to stop first and Luis León Sánchez later, who were part of the escape.

In particular, Roglic should send a ham to the house of the Murcia, who made about 20 portentous final kilometers, without more help than some specific relief from Poljanski, Majka's companion, who could hardly endure in the group. Ahead, Deceuninck asserted his superiority (and his quality) so that Gilbert added his second stage victory in this Tour ahead of Sam Bennett, an hour and a quarter before the scheduled time of arrival. Quintana, a prisoner of fatigue, gave up 10 seconds with the Belgian. A minutia compared to the 5:19 that took the rest of the favorites to revolutionize La Vuelta, whose final script is yet to be written.

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  • Primoz Roglic
  • Movistar
  • Nairo Quintana
  • sports
  • cycling