Vuelta a España Stage Report: Primoz Roglič (Red Bull-BORA-hangrohe) stamped over the finale of the nineteenth stage to take the win and the overall lead in the 2024 Vuelta a España. The Slovenian finished off the work of his team on the tough final climb of the Alto de Moncalvillo. David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) and Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) finished second and third after they caught Enric Mas (Movistar), who had tried to chase Roglič. Ben O’Connor (Decathlon-AG2R-La Mondiale) lost well over a minute and is now second to Roglič with two stages to go.
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Vuelta race director, Fernando Escartín: “This stage is practically flat until its final part. The Alto de Moncalvillo, where Roglič obtained victory in 2020, starts off gently and becomes far more challenging in the final kilometres. The favourites must make the most of this in their second-last chance to make a difference to the general classification.”
Stage 19 profile
Stage 19: There are two major mountain stages before Madrid. The peloton leaves the Basque Country on Friday, but stays in the north of Spain in the Castile and Leon. Stage 19 has a summit, the first in the third week. After the start in Logroño, the 8 kilometre final climb to the Alto de Moncalvillo (11.3km at 7.6%) comes after 160 kilometres. There is also the Puerto de Pradilla, but this Cat.3 climb does not have any super-steep gradients. After the Puerto de Pradilla it is mainly downhill to the foot of the Alto de Moncalvillo. This climb is tough, with an average gradient of 7.6%. Towards the top the gradients are never below 10%. There should be a battle for the overall here.
Stage 18 winner, Urko Berrade, topped off a great Vuelta for his Kern Pharma team
There were a lot of riders who wanted to be in the break of the day. After the usual flurry of attacks, we had a leading group of five riders. Isaac del Toro (UAE Emirates) was joined by Edward Planckaert (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Fran Miholjevič (Bahrain Victorious), Vito Braet and Simone Petilli (Intermarché-Wanty). Eduardo Sepúlveda tried to join them, but was stuck between break and peloton.
Yesterday was a disaster for Mikel Landa, he lost over 3 minutes and dropped to 10th overall
The maximum lead of the escape never got over 5 minutes, but the peloton shut that down to 3 minutes, where it stayed for a long time. The stage ( and maybe the GC) was going to be decided on the final climb. With 70 kilometres to go, the peloton started to speed up as Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe and Movistar has that overall leader, Ben O’Connor and Mikel Landa were in a back split. The two teams kept going at ‘full gas’ for a few kilometres, but eventually the race came back together again.
Swiss champion, Mauro Schmid (Jayco AlUla), has been in a lot of breaks in la Vuelta, this is his special bike
Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe stayed on the front and the break lost some time due to the peloton. With 50 kilometres to go they only had 1:40 in hand. Braet had been caught by the peloton, leaving only 4 off the front.
Anther fast start
Del Toro, Planckaert, Petilli and Miholjevič were fighting a losing battle, but they didn’t give up. Miholjevič started the final climb, the Alto de Moncalvillo (8.6km at 8.9%), before he was caught. The Cat.1 climb starts with 7% ramps in the first 3 kilometres, but after that it just gets harder. In the final kilometres, the climb never drops below 10%.
Vino country
Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe were still setting the pace. They set-up a climbing lead-out with Daniel Felipe Martínez, Aleksandr Vlasov and Florian Lipowitz for Roglic. They gradually increased the pace, but were waiting for the steep sections before making a move.
Sepp Kuss sat at the back of the peloton
The break wasn’t given much time
Martínez put the pressure on and only Vlasov and Roglič could follow. The other GC riders couldn’t hold on, Roglič and his men were too strong. The Slovenian went solo with 5 kilometres to go after Vlasov had dragged his leader further away on the climb.
The peloton were not taking it easy
A 2 minute lead was not going to be enough
Roglič already had a 30 second lead. The riders behind looked at each other, after which David Gaudu tried to go alone. A little later there was a counter-attack from Richard Carapaz, who wanted that second place overall. The Ecuadorian couldn’t get away and the chase group came back together. Roglič remained at just under 30 seconds ahead.
The flowers were out for la Vuelta
The peloton were in a hurry to get to the final climb
Enric Mas was next to attack, this split the group. The Spaniard shot away with 3 kilometres to go and even made time on Roglič, coming to within 19 seconds. Bur a kilometre later Roglič extended his lead again.
Primoz Roglič was launched up the road by his team
Enric Mas tried to chase the Slovenian down, but blew in the last metres
The Slovenian paced his climb well and soloed to his third stage victory in the 2024 Vuelta. Roglič won the stage by 36 seconds, from Gaudu, and also took over the overall lead. O’Connor eventually lost almost two minutes and his red jersey with two stages to go.
Mas had done too much and blew in the last few hundred metres. Gaudu had jumped away from the chase group and caught and dropped Mas. Mattias Skjelmose was just behind him and also passed the struggling Movistar rider. A rejuvenated Landa finished fifth. Roglič leads O’Connor by 1:54 and Mas is a further 26 seconds back.
Stage win and overall lead for Primoz Roglič
Stage winner and overall leader, Primoz Roglič (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe): “I had some really nice memories from this climb and I didn’t miss this opportunity, I’m happy! It was not really the plan, I said I don’t need the stage, but some guys in the team told me: ‘We don’t listen to you, we pull anyway!’ We have to be on the same page so we went for it. Tomorrow is the last big stage and it will be super hard. And we don’t do the usual circuit in Madrid, we have another decisive stage with the time trial so it’s far from done. I’m definitely impressed with the gaps… It’s better than being five minutes behind! So I’m happy with the way I’m functioning and definitely happy with the guys.”
# Don’t miss a pedal stroke of the final weekend of la Vuelta’24 – Keep it PEZ. #
Vuelta a España Stage 19 Result:
1. Primož Roglič (Slo) Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe in
2. David Gaudu (Fra) Groupama-FDJ at 0:36
3. Mattias Skjelmose Jensen (Den) Lidl-Trek
4. Enric Mas Nicolau (Spa) Movistar at 0:40
5. Mikel Landa Meana (Spa) Soudal Quick-Step at 0:47
6. Carlos Rodriguez Cano (Spa) INEOS Grenadiers
7. Eddie Dunbar (Irl) Jayco AlUla at 0:51
8. Sepp Kuss (USA) Visma | Lease a Bike
9. Richard Carapaz (Ecu) EF Education-EasyPost at 0:53
10. Florian Lipowitz (Ger) Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe at 1:13.
Vuelta a España Overall After Stage 19:
1. Primož Roglič (Slo) Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe in 76:43:36
2. Ben O’Connor (Aus) Decathlon-AG2R-La Mondiale at 1:54
3. Enric Mas Nicolau (Spa) Movistar at 2:20
4. Richard Carapaz (Ecu) EF Education-EasyPost at 2:54
5. David Gaudu (Fra) Groupama-FDJ at 4:33
6. Mattias Skjelmose Jensen (Den) Lidl-Trek at 4:47
7. Carlos Rodriguez Cano (Spa) INEOS Grenadiers at 4:55
8. Florian Lipowitz (Ger) Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe at 5:55
9. Mikel Landa Meana (Spa) Soudal Quick-Step at 6:40
10. Pavel Sivakov (Fra) UAE Team Emirates at 7:39.
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