Vuelta a España: Woods victorious on Balcón de Bizkaia

Image 1 of 43

Michael Woods (EF Education First-Drapac) won stage 17 of the Vuelta a España atop Alto del Balcón de Bizkaia, while Nairo Quintana (Movistar) suffered a seemingly critical blow to his chances of overall victory in the Basque Country. Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) retains the red jersey, but Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) signalled his intentions by reducing the Briton’s lead to 25 seconds.

Woods was part of the large, day-long break that fought out the stage win on the final climb, and the Canadian entered the mist-shrouded closing kilometre in a group with Dylan Teuns (BMC Racing), David de la Cruz (Team Sky) and Rafal Majka (Bora-Hansgrohe).

Woods launched his first attack with a little under 800 metres to go, and then kicked once again after Teuns had responded to that move with an acceleration of his own. As the gradient reared up to 18 per cent, Woods managed to edge his way clear, and though Teuns would stalk him to the line, the EF-Drapac rider held on to claim stage victory by five seconds. De la Cruz took third at 10 seconds, with Majka a further three seconds back in fourth.

“It's hard to describe, I won, there were so many people on the side of the road screaming. My directeur Juanma was on the radio and he said, 'Do this for your family,'” Woods said afterwards. “My wife and I, my wife had a stillbirth two months ago. We lost the little guy, his name was Hunter. The whole time I was going up the climb I was thinking of him I wanted to win so bad for him and I did.”

The 26-man break – which also included Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida) and Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha-Alpecin) – reached the base of the steep final climb with a lead of four minutes over the bunch, meaning that the day was neatly broken into two distinct races within a race. Up ahead, Woods won a keenly contested fight for stage honours. Behind, the battle for the general classification was no less intense.

Astana set a fierce tempo at the base of the 7km ascent in support of Miguel Angel Lopez, and even before the Colombian’s inevitable acceleration, Pello Bilbao’s stint of pace-making had distanced Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) and Rigoberto Uran (EF-Drapac). Midway up the climb, Valverde launched a rasping attack, with Adam Yates leading the response on behalf of his brother Simon. The Briton then took over on the front of the group, and his stinging pace saw Quintana lose contact.

Quintana initially battled to remain within sight of his rivals, but his pedalling was increasingly leaden, and the gap yawned open as the road narrowed and the gradient stiffened in the final 3km. An attack from Lopez inside the final 2km stretched that gap still further.

Lopez’s telegraphed acceleration failed to discommode Yates, however, as the Briton was promptly onto his wheel. As the dwindling red jersey group reached the searing gradients in the final kilometre, Enric Mas (Quick-Step Floors) and Valverde showed themselves to be the strongmen of the group. They emerged from the gloom to cross the line 2:40 down on Woods, while Yates came home eight seconds behind them with Lopez in his wake.

After his travails earlier on the climb, Quintana finished on a note of defiance, accelerating to catch Steven Kruijswijk (LottoNL-Jumbo) at the line, but he still came in 3:44 down on the stage and more than a minute behind his teammate Valverde. In the overall standings, Quintana is now sixth at 2:11, his hopes of Vuelta victory seemingly over.

“I just didn't have any strength,” Quintana admitted. “I lost time today, but the important thing is Alejandro is still there."

Valverde lies second overall, 25 seconds behind Yates, while Mas moves up to third at 1:22. Lopez is fourth at 1:36, with Kruijswijk a further 12 seconds back in fifth. It was a trying day for Pinot, who dropped to ninth overall, 5:31 off the pace. Yates lost some ground to Valverde, but the gains he made elsewhere meant that he was satisfied with his day’s work.

“Of course, I would have liked not to have lost time, but those two guys in front of me were very strong there in the final,” Yates said. “I did a good ride and I'm happy with what I did. Adam was there with me for the entire climb, he did a really good job. Today was the day I was most worried about, so I'm happy to have it over with.”

How it unfolded

While the GC battle would ultimately be focused on the stiff final climb to Balcon de Bizkaia, the day’s opening difficulty, the Alto de la Arboleda, proved pivotal to the fight for stage victory. After a flurry of attacks on the climb, a break of 26 riders forged its way clear, with Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain-Merida) among their number.

The 2010 Vuelta winner was joined in the move by Alexandre Geniez (AG2R-La Mondiale), Omar Fraile (Astana), Alessandro De Marchi, Dylan Teuns (BMC Racing Team), Rafal Majka, Lukas Pöstlberger (Bora-hansgrohe), Thomas De Gendt (Lotto-Soudal), Andrey Amador (Movistar Team), Amanuel Ghebreigzabhier (Dimension Data), Simon Clarke, Michael Woods (Education First-Drapac), Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha-Alpecin), David De La Cruz, Jonathan Castroviejo (Team Sky), Jai Hindley (Team Sunweb), Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo), Cristian Rodríguez (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA), Jesus Herrada, Stéphane Rossetto (Cofidis), Franco Pellizotti (Bahrain-Merida), Pieter Serry (Quick-Step Floors), Merhawi Kudus (Dimension Data), Valerio Conti (UAE Team Emirates) and Jose Mendes (Burgos-BH).

Only three teams – Groupama-FDJ, Mitchelton-Scott and LottoNL-Jumbo – were not represented in the break, which meant the escapees were always likely to be handed considerable freedom. De Gendt led them over the top of the Arboleda and over the other side, they steadily stretched their lead out to eight minutes.

De Gendt’s stint in the break on the rugged terrain of the Basque Country was enough to put him into the king of the mountains as he led the break over each of the day’s five ascents ahead of the concluding haul to the finish. Mitchelton-Scott were more than happy to grant the break its freedom, and it was only when Astana took up the reins in the final hour of racing that the gap began to come down with any urgency.

The run-in to the final climb saw Fabio Aru (UAE-Team Emirates) crash in the main peloton on a sweeping descent, but though bloodied and bruised, the Italian quickly remounted. Up ahead, Simon Clarke was the first of the escapees to attack on the Alto del Balcón de Bizkaia, and after he was brought back, Alessandro De Marchi stretched things out on behalf of his BMC teammate Teuns.

The upper reaches of the climb proved decisive, however, as De la Cruz produced a spell of forcing that saw all bar Woods, Majka and Teuns distanced. That quartet led into the final 2km, and with a shade over a kilometre to go, De la Cruz underlined his strength with a determined attack, but he would pay a price for that effort in the final kilometre, as Woods emerged from the mist to claim the honours.

Full Results