Vuelta a España stage 20: Jonas Vingegaard smashes Queen stage solo win to seal overall race victory

Jonas Vingegaard (Team Visma–Lease a Bike) stamped his authority on the final mountaintop ascent of the Vuelta a España and won stage 20 atop the hors categorie Bola del Mundo.

The Dane's teammate Sepp Kuss pushed two seconds ahead of Jai Hindley (Red Bull–BORA–hansgrohe) at the summit and secured second place, Hindley taking third on the stage. Tom Pidcock (Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team) trailed another five seconds down for fourth.

It was stage win number three for Vinegaard, who extended his GC with the formality of riding into Madrid remaining on Sunday.

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The front group of five leaders on the final steep banks for Bola del Mundo turned into chasers when Vingegaard launched his attack with 1.5km to go. João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) managed to continue forward momentum to finish fifth, 22 seconds back, while Matthew Riccitello (Israel-Premier Tech) finished another two seconds down in sixth, as he looked to move into the best young rider classification lead.

It was stage win number three for Vinegaard, who extended his GC with small gains and the formality of riding into Madrid with red remaining on Sunday, now 1:16 up on Almeida in the overall. Pidcock managed to retain third overall, 3:112 down, as his top rival Hindley too minimal seconds on the stage and still trailed Pidcock by 30 seconds in fourth overall.

"I wanted to win in Bilbao, I wanted to win on Angliru, but the Bola del Mundo is also a very special one," Vingegaard told Eurosport at the finish about securing the final mountain stage victory.

"To be honest, I'm starting to feel a bit better. Today I felt better than the previous mountaintop finishes. Super happy how things went for me today and how it has gone for the team in the last three weeks. The team has been so amazing, and I couldn't have done it without them.

His winning move was made just before the final kilometre, and he said he just decided to go and took a gap on Almeida.

"Actually, I was feeling, I wouldn't say comfortable in the pace that João was doing, but at least I felt like I was not on my limit yet. So I felt that I had a good chance of winning the stage. So yeah, at one point I just decided, now I'm gonna try. And then immediately I got a gap, and yeah, then the last few 100 metres was also incredibly hard, and I almost went into the barrier. So small mistake from my side."

How it Unfolded

The penultimate stage of the race was the last in the mountains for the three-week stage race with two stories unfolding. Just 44 seconds separated Jonas Vingegaard (Team Visma–Lease a Bike) and João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) at the top of classification and 39 seconds were between Tom Pidcock (Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team) and Jai Hindley (Red Bull–BORA–hansgrohe), the Brit holding a spot on the podium.

The five classified climbs amounted to a total of 4,226 metres of elevation gain, including the feared Bola del Mundo, so there was enough mountain real estate for Almeida to gain time. The sawtooth profile of the day included the first trio of climbs across the opening 58km - Alto de la Escondida (13.6km at 4.1%), Puerto de la Paradilla (5.8km at 5.4%), and Alto del León (7km at 7.3%).

The two most sizeable ascents were positioned on the back half, with the category 1 Alto de Navacerrada (6.9km at 7.6%) offering a time bonus with 50km to go and then the hors categorie Bola del Mundo (12.3km at 8.6%) for the finale. In the opening kilometres, a crash in the peloton saw a few riders go down, including Mikkel Bjerg, a top lieutenant for Almeida. Organisers waited for the riders to remount, as well as Mathijs Paasschens (Bahrain Victorious) who had a mechanical, and the start from Robledo de Chavela for 165.6km.

Once the flag dropped for racing, Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) charged away, joined by teammate Egan Bernal. Ineos remained active with riders at the front as counter-attacks flew, Brandon Rivera the next to accelerate with Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) in a bunch of a dozen riders, but still no clearly-defined break with riders moving back and forth.

Once on the opening climb of Alto de la Escondida, Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain Victorious) moved away solo. Near the crest he was joined by Orluis Aular (Movistar Team), Mauri Vansevenant and Mikel Landa (Soudal–Quick-Step), Eddie Dunbar (Team Jayco–AlUla) and Ciccone.

Once on the second hill, Puerto de la Paradilla, the leaders were caught by a small group of chasers to make it a lead group of about 30 riders, including stage 19 winner Mads Pedersen with three other Lidl-Trek teammates - Ciccone, Carlos Verona and Julien Bernard. Climbers Bernal, Landa and Buitrago were also significant names at the front.

The story unfolding was UAE Team Emirates controlling the tempo of the peloton, keeping the front bunch to within one minute. Remaining with UAE leader Almeida was teammate Jay Vine, neither had a climber in the break, and Jonas Vingegaard (Team Visma–Lease a Bike) unhurried in the peloton as well.

Across the Alto del León, Joel Nicolau (Caja Rural–Seguros RGA) led the lead group over the KOM, the peloton now 1:20 back as a series of undulating roads lead to the bigger ascents of the day.

With 80km to go, two riders in the peloton crashed, with Bjorn Koerdt (Team Picnic-PostNL) treated by the medical as he pedalled again on his bike.

On the approach to Alto de Navacerrada, a dozen riders fell off the pace at the front, including Pedersen, with UAE still setting the pace of the peloton. Once on the slopes, Juan Ayuso did the work for UAE on this climb followed by Vine, Marc Soler and Felix Großschartner, looking to put Vingegaard under pressure.

The Navacerrada would come back into the picture for the end of the stage, as they would climb even higher to the Bola del Mundo for the finish, barren of trees and spectators at the top, the spectators barred for environmental reasons by organisers a few days ago.

With 50km to go, Jardi van der Lee (EF Education-EasyPost) taking points at the summit, and the peloton now one minute back. Another 10km on, Ciccone, Landa, Bernal, Bruno Armirail (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team) and Van der Lee formed the lead group.

With under 20km go ride, Ciccone attacked. As he went through a wide-open roundabout packed with spectators, many of those individuals appeared to be protesters and they tried to go around police. Ciccone streaked past the impending chaos. A few riders in the chase had to slow down, but continued forward progress, while team cars were held up.

Final climb

Almirail was the first to drop from the front, which now had a change of composition as Landa accelerated on a solo attack, leaving Bernal, Ciccone and Van der Lee as the chasers. As the road kicked up, Van der Lee succumbed to the pace and left Ciccone and Bernal to chase Landa.

With 10km to go, Ciccone had powered up the climb to catch and drop Landa while at the same time dispensing with Bernal. The Italian put in distance to the Spanish climber, but a few minutes later, Landa clawed his way back to the front.

The duo paced themselves through the dappled shade of the trees still hugging the road, while a group of contenders, including Almeida, Vine, Vingegaard, Hindley and Pidcock, closed their advantage to under 40 seconds.

With 5km to climb on a stiffer gradient, the gap was down to 25 seconds, the chase group now consisting of a quartet of Visma riders - Vingegaard, Ben Tulett, Sepp Kuss, Ciccone - UAE riders Vine and Almeida, Pidcock and Damien Howson (both Q36.5), Hindley, Matthew Riccitello, Torstein Træen and Finlay Pickering of Bahrain Victorious and William Junior Lecerf (Soudal–Quick-Step).

The final 3km posed the steepest gradients surpassing 17% on a rough, narrow surface. Almeida set the pace followed by Vingegaard, Hindley, Pidcock and Kuss, and the group accelerated away from Landa and Ciccone.

Hindley went on the attack with 2.2km to go, the twisting road above the tree line and sprinkled with spectators. The red leader's jersey clung to the back of the Red Bull–BORA–hansgrohe rider and Almeida looking like he was beginning to suffer in third position.

At 1.5km to go, the road kicked up to 18% again, Hindley still in charge. Pidcock began to struggle, as did Riccitello in his effort to make the catch to the front.

Four hundred metres later, Vingegaard launched an attack around HIndley, and creating separation to the other four riders. He looked back as the one-kilometre banner appeared, the screams of the fans going away as he carried on solo on an authoritative, lonely road to the top.

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