Vuelta a España Stage Report: Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck) won stage 14 of the Vuelta a España in Villablino. Despite this being a hilly stage with a long climb in the finale, the stage ended in a bunch sprint. Groves out-sprinted points and KOM leader, Wout van Aert, who couldn’t finish the hard work of his Visma | Lease a Bike team. Ben O’Connor (Decathlon-AG2R-La Mondiale) finished in the bunch to keep the overall lead.
The stage 14 finale
Vuelta race director, Fernando Escartín: “The longest stage of La Vuelta 24. A flat initial section will be the prelude to the tough finale following the race’s visit to Asturias before returning to Castilla y León through the Leitariegos Mountain Pass. The climb will not feature steep ramps. However, these 23 km can feel particularly challenging in a stage consisting of almost 200 km.”
Stage 14 profile
Stage 14: The 14th stage starts in Villafrance del Bierzo. The first hundred kilometres are again fairly easy. Halfway through the stage, there is the Puerto de Cerredo. This climb rises about 9 kilometres with an average gradient of 4.1% and will not cause too many problems. At the top the riders will enter Asturias. In this stage, the Puerto de Leitariegos (24km at 4.1%) is the main obstacle. This starts after a long descent towards Bimeda at 39 kilometres from the finish. There are 24 kilometres of climbing, but it never really gets very steep, it should take about an hour to summit. After the top, there is another 16 kilometres of descent to the finish in Villablino. The stage could be decisive, but the riders knowing that on Sunday they will be a climb of an HC category?
Stage 13 winner Michael Woods
The attackers again saw their chance and opened the battle early. It took a long time before a group got a gap, but eventually Jhonatan Narvaez (INEOS Grenadiers), Xandro Meurisse (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Marco Frigo (Israel-Premier Tech) and Isaac Del Toro (UAE Team Emirates) managed to escape. A group with counter-attackers including: Victor Campenaerts (Lotto Dstny) and Harold Tejada (Astana Qazaqstan) managed to cross to the leaders.
The jerseys at the start
Visma | Lease a Bike were in control of the peloton. It was Robert Gesink and Edoardo Affini who led the chase and kept the six within catching distance. The lead was at 3 minutes for quite a time, but Gesink and Affini soon pulled a minute back. When the leading group started on the Puerto de Leitariegos, the break only had a lead of a little over 1 minute. Affini, who had done most of the work then sat up.
Narrow streets in the start town
Gesink kept on pushing hard for a while, with occasional help from Cian Uijtdebroeks. The Belgian took over completely after a few kilometres of the climb. The leading group had already split: Tejada, Frigo and Narváez continued off the front, the other three had to let go. Nine kilometres from the summit of the Puerto de Leitareigos, Tejada was also dropped, and 2 kilometres later Narváez jumped away from Frigo. The Ecuadorian had a lead of about 40 seconds on the peloton.
A statue for the pilgrims who walk the Camino
There is water under the bridges in the north of Spain, not like the south
Kruijswijk then took over from Uijtdebroeks. The pace increased and Narváez’s solo was soon over. With 4 kilometres to go, the INEOS Grenadiers rider was caught. Lidl-Trek’s Tao Geoghegan Hart took over from Kruijswijk and then other teams also came to the front and the pace increased as they got closer to the top. Van Aert was near the front of the group and jumped before the KOM line to take 10 more mountain points.
Xandro Meurisse (Alpecin-Deceuninck) was in the first part of the break
Victor Campenaerts (Lotto Dstny) brought up the second part
Pavel Bittner was struggling, but was just able to stay with the peloton. The bunch still had around a 100 riders. At the start of the descent, Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe had a problem as leader, Primoz Roglič had a puncture, about 15 kilometres from the finish. The Slovenian changed bikes with his teammate, Daniel Felipe Martínez and, with the help of a few teammates, was able to return to the big front group on the descent.
Visma | Lease a Bike and Movistar took control of the peloton
Jhonatan Narvaez (INEOS Grenadiers) was caught with 20 kilometres to go
Alpecin-Deceuninck was now doing the lead work. Their sprinter, Kaden Groves, was still there. Into the final kilometre, dsm-firmenich-PostNL hit the front. They were leading-out Bittner, who had recovered a little. In the final kilometre, it was Groves and Van Aert who were in the best positions. The sprint was led-out by Edward Planckaert for Groves, who then held off Van Aert. The Australian succeeded by about a wheel, taking his second stage win in this Vuelta. Van Aert was second. All the GC men finished together.
Visma | Lease a Bike were working hard for Wout win
A late bike change for Primoz Roglič at the top of the final climb
Stage winner, Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck): “It feels really good. I didn’t expect it to be a sprint as it was but Jumbo controlled it and to have a one on one sprint against Wout [van Aert] is awesome. The climb was quite okay in the wheels. It might have been a bit hard if they start attacking but thankfully Jumbo rode a really hard pace, no one attacked and my teammates also got over with me so we could control the finish. The team did a great job. Edward [Planckaert] again did a good lead-out like he did in Sevilla but today I didn’t hesitate and I think I did a really good sprint. It felt quite a bit like a drag race against Wout and in the end it was good enough to beat him. It’s obviously really nice [to be up to 6 La Vuelta stage wins]. I love racing here. It’s my third Vuelta and my sixth win. It’s good to see the consistency and the hard work paying off.”
It looked like Wout van Aert was on his way to another stage win, but…
Overall leader, Ben O’Connor (Decathlon-AG2R-La Mondiale): “There was a couple of attacks anyway [after Roglic had a mechanical]. The stage was still there for grabs, and some guys tried to get away. I don’t really know to be honest, it was quite pretty fast down there. For me, yes, it was [a quiet stage]. It look a long time for the break to go, and then Visma did a really excellent job controlling. It wasn’t simple anyway, so harder than I expected. I wouldn’t have been surprised [because of Kaden Groves’ win]. He can climb so well. He’s really incredible. He’s a talent, he’s a class, and I’m happy that he has won today. I watched the replay of [Cuitu Negru] from 2012. It’s pretty epic. It’s pretty hard. We’ve done some hard climbs and this will be another one to the list.”
Kaden Groves beat the KOM and pointe leader by a wheel’s length
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Vuelta a España Stage 14 Result:
1. Kaden Groves (Aus) Alpecin-Deceuninck in 4:21:34
2. Wout van Aert (Bel) Visma | Lease a Bike
3. Corbin Strong (NZ) Israel-Premier Tech
4. Mathias Vacek (CZ) Lidl-Trek
5. Pau Miquel Delgado (Spa) Equipo Kern Pharma
6. Filippo Baroncini (Ita) UAE Team Emirates
7. Simon Guglielmi (Fra) Arkéa-B&B Hotels
8. Arjen Livyns (Bel) Lotto Dstny
9. Xabier Berasategi Garmendia (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi
10. Carlos Canal Blanco (Spa) Movistar.
Vuelta a España Overall After Stage 14:
1. Ben O’Connor (Aus) Decathlon-AG2R-La Mondiale in 56:31:49
2. Primož Roglič (Slo) Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe at 1:21
3. Enric Mas Nicolau (Spa) Movistar at 3:01
4. Richard Carapaz (Ecu) EF Education-EasyPost at 3:13
5. Mikel Landa Meana (Spa) Soudal Quick-Step at 3:20
6. Carlos Rodriguez Cano (Spa) INEOS Grenadiers at 4:12
7. Florian Lipowitz (Ger) Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe at 4:29
8. Felix Gall (Aust) Decathlon-AG2R-La Mondiale at 4:42
9. David Gaudu (Fra) Groupama-FDJ at 4:44
10. Adam Yates (GB) UAE Team Emirates at 5:17.
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