Vuelta a Espana: King conquers La Covatilla

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Ben King (Dimension Data) claimed a second stage success at the 2018 Vuelta a España, winning solo at La Covatilla on the first hors-categorie summit finish of the race.

The American, who won atop the Puerto de Alfacar on stage 4, attacked from an 11-rider breakaway some 10km ahead of the final climb to the ski resort in western Spain, and held his lead all the way to the top despite a spirited chase from Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo).

Starting the climb 1:30 down, Mollema himself dropped the remnants of the break and clawed his way back to within 15 seconds of a seemingly ailing King. However, in a dramatic twist, the gradients eased in the final couple of kilometres and the Dimension Data rider pulled away once more, a look of disbelief spreading across his face as he raised his arms aloft for the second time in what has been an extraordinary week.

“To get one stage win was a dream come true," King said. "I made winning a Grand Tour stage a major career goal, so today was really nice to show that first one wasn’t a random thing.

“I’ve never suffered that much in my entire life, I’m still a little foggy in my mind, but I’m sure it will sink in soon what an accomplishment this is.”

Dylan Teuns (BMC Racing) placed a distant third on the stage, just ahead of the GC contenders, who bided their time for much of the final climb but nevertheless burst to life in the exposed final couple of kilometres.

The red jersey, as widely expected, changed hands as Rudy Molard (Groupama-FDJ) was dropped early on the final climb.
Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott), who’d started the day fourth overall, is the new leader after finishing ninth, but the Briton - despite surpassing Emmanuel Buchmann (Bora-Hansgrohe), Alejandro Valverde (Movistar), and Molard - actually lost time to his direct rivals.

Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana) finished fourth, as best of the overall contenders, as he jumped aboard a late attack initiated by Wilco Kelderman (Team Sunweb) and Nairo Quintana (Movistar), who finished fifth and sixth, respectively, on the same time. Rigoberto Urán (EF-Drapac) and Ion Izaguirre (Bahrain-Merida) had joined that trio to make it a group of five but lost a few seconds in sight of the line.

Yates missed the move initially but burst away from the rest of the pack to limit the damage to nine seconds, and in doing so moved into the red leader’s jersey, just a solitary second ahead of Valverde, with Quintana now third at 14 seconds.

George Bennett (LottoNL-Jumbo) rounded out the top 10 on the stage, 13 seconds down on Yates, while Valverde followed a few seconds later in a group with Thibaut Pinot (FDJ), Steven Kruijswijk (LottoNL-Jumbo), Tony Gallopin (AG2R La Mondiale), and - a couple of seconds behind - Buchmann.

Fabio Aru (UAE Team Emirates) was next in but ceded 40 seconds to the leading GC riders in what was another disappointing day for the Italian. The same went for Louis Meintjes (Dimension Data), who was 12 seconds behind Aru. It was a bad day, too, for Team Sky; David de la Cruz finished with Meintjes, while Kwiatkowski lost a further minute and fell out of the top 10, that question of whether he should be considered a GC contender seemingly given a definitive answer. 

The break goes all the way

As the peloton made its way through the neutral zone - with a lengthy delay due to a Peter Sagan puncture - plenty of riders were nudging up alongside the race director’s car, eager to go on the attack once the flag dropped.

In the end, the breakaway formed with a minimum of fuss. Luis Angel Maté (Cofidis) was the first one to go, aware of the chance to increase his lead in the mountains classification, while Thomas De Gendt (Lotto Soudal), one of the keenest noses, helped drive it away. As well as King, Mollema, and Teuns, the rest of the representatives were: Kennth Van Bilsen (Cofidis), Reto Hollenstein (Katusha-Alpecin), Tom Leezer (LottoNL-Jumbo), Luis Mas (Caja Rural), Aritz Bagues (Euskadi-Murias), and Jesus Ezquerra (Burgos-BH).

With King the best-placed rider overall, at 6:34, FDJ controlled the peloton and kept the gap at four minutes by the time of the first climb of the day, the Category-1 Puerto del Pico. Maté sprinted for the KOM points at the top and went on to successfully the same as the Category-3 Alto de Gredos and the Category-2 Puerto de Peña Negra followed in quick succession to make it a tough first half of the 200km parcours.

After a fast descent, there were 60km of undulating roads to negotiate before the final climb, and that’s where the balance swung in favour of the break. FDJ received no help from other teams, and the gap began to yawn out towards the 10-minute mark as the 11 leaders went all-in.

With around 30km to go Team Sky appeared on the front of the peloton and lifted the pace, and that was the cue for De Gendt to attack and weed out the dead wood. Only King, Mollema, Mas, Teuns, and Hollenstein - and eventually Maté - were able to follow, and there were seven left out front.

The seeds of King’s victory were sewn when he followed an attack from Mas with around 20km to go. He soon dropped the Spaniard through narrow, cobbled, and steep streets in the village of Candelario and continued his effort on the technical approach to the climb. It was a gamble, as others opted to conserve energy, but by the foot of the climb he had a lead of 1:30.

After some gentle early gradients it didn’t take long for Mollema to burst away and begin his pursuit of King, while the rest of the chasers fell away. It looked good for the Dutchman, who’d finished second on stage 5. His head was bobbing with the effort as the gradients hit double digits, but further ahead King was weaving across the road and the gap was steadily coming down.

With 5km to go, the gap was down to 30 seconds, but King dug in from that point and Mollema started to suffer. With 3km to go it was down to just 15 seconds but Mollema just couldn’t finish the job. He needed to make the catch before the last 2km as the flatter roads would tip the balance back in King’s favour, but he was never able to do so. The gap hung nail-bitingly at 20 seconds before King began to pull away again on the exposed mountaintop.

Mollema faded in the final kilometre, allowing King enough time to shake his head in disbelief before sitting up and celebrating as he crossed the line.

GC battle on La Covatilla

As the breakaway enjoyed some freedom at the head of the race, FDJ led the peloton on what was - despite the trio of early climbs - very much a procession to the final climb as far as the general classification contenders were concerned.

Astana, Movistar, and Sky had been the most prominent teams on the approach but it was Bora - with Buchmann third overall - who took the initiative on the climb itself through Rafal Majka. The Pole set a high tempo on the front as the group steadily declined in number. It didn’t take long for Molard to find himself in trouble, along with Ilnur Zakarin (Katusha-Alpecin) once again.

Majka led the way until the final few kilometres, by which point the GC group had been reduced to 20 riders, though without any major absentees - save perhaps for Enric Mas (Quick-Step Floors). Sepp Kuss then took it up for LottoNL-Jumbo, with George Bennett and Steven Kruijswijk both looking strong, but the attacks were reserved for the final kilometre-and-a-half.

Just as King was crossing the line, Quintana produced an acceleration and although it was short-lived, it was soon followed by a more sustained effort from Kelderman. Quintana jumped right on it before Lopez, Uran, and Izaguirre made their way across to form a lead group of five.

Yates set off in pursuit but would never completely close the gap, losing nine seconds to Quintana. Bennett also set off on his own and rounded out the top 10 on the stage, finishing 13 seconds down on Yates.

Pinot led a mini chase group, from which Valverde sprang clear at the line. While they lost more than 20 seconds to Quintana and Lopez, the real disappointment was reserved for the likes of Aru, Meintjes, De la Cruz, and Kwiatkowski, as the riders came in the dribs and drabs.

La Covatilla had enjoyed big billing, and while it was a contained affair for the most part, the race did burst open in the final couple of kilometres, providing some important - if not yet decisive - developments ahead of the first rest day.

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