Vuelta a Espana: Oliveira solos to victory in Tarazona

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Nelson Oliveira (Lampre-Merida) soloed to a maiden Grand Tour victory on stage 13 of the Vuelta a Espana, cleverly attacking on a long descent from a large breakaway with just under 30km to go and holding his lead to the finish in Tarazona.

Once he had opened up a gap on the descent of the final climb of the day – the third-category Alto de Moncayo – the multiple Portuguese time trial champion used his skillset and power to consolidate his lead, which continued to grow all the way to the line. Though the 26-year-old was alone against a chasing pack of over 20km, his victory was in no small part down to teamwork as Rubén Plaza and Valerio Conti did a great job of slowing the pace in the breaks and marking each and every attack.

"This is the most beautiful victory in my career," Oliveira said. "I won the Portuguese championship, such emotional successes for me, but the feelings I had today are something I can't describe.

"I think Lampre-Merida fully deserved a victory, because we approached every stage with a battling spirit and we made every stage very exciting. My sensations during the Vuelta have been good, I was in the front of the race in the queen stage, too and I tried to attack, but I could not achieve a top result, so I tried today again.

"I attacked maybe too early, but in that moment the breakaway members were recovering their energy and, being aware that, I needed to anticipate if I wanted to win, I decided to attack."

Julien Simon (Cofidis) led the thoroughly beaten remains of the 24-rider breakaway to the line for second, with Nicolas Roche (Team Sky) third, nearly four minutes ahead of the peloton but just over a minute down on the triumphant Oliveira.

On stage 12 on Thursday it was exhausting simply to watch the Giant-Alpecin and Trek Factory Racing-led peloton chase down the break – something they only managed with 200 metres to spare. Today the hilly stage was always likely to suit the baroudeurs and they went on the attack from the very start. With an early third-category climb followed almost immediately by the first-category ascent of the Alto de Beratón, it was Astana who marshalled the peloton for much of the day, merely making sure things didn’t get too out of hand.

Fabio Aru finished safely in the bunch and, following the abandon of Chris Froome on Thursday morning, the Italian saw another of his main rivals - Nairo Quintana suffer during the stage. The Colombian has been struggling with a fever and an upset stomach over the last few days and was dropped for a while on the first climb of the day. He has dropped out of the top 10 along with Louis Meintjes (MTN-Qhubeka) but that was by virtue of Gianluca Brambilla (Etixx-QuickStep), and Romain Sicard (Europcar) being in the break of the day and taking their places in the top ten thanks to the time the break gained on the peloton. All the main general classification contenders finished together in the bunch at 4:48. They will now look ahead to three days in the mountains, with three summit finishes, which are likely to be pivotal in the fight for the leader’s red jersey.

How it unfolded

The peloton lined up in Calatayud with 173 riders in its ranks after the overnight abandon of a sick Maarten Wynants (LottoNL-Jumbo). As expected, it was a fast and furious start to proceedings. With a breakaway always likely to stay away to the line, the fight to be in it was intense, with attacks, counter-attacks, and short-lived escape moves aplenty.

At one point a group of 50 dangled ahead of the peloton but it wasn’t until just over 40km in, on the lower slopes of the third-category Alto Collado de Oseja, that the break of the day began to take shape. Sylvain Chavanel (IAM Cycling), active from the start, triggered it, moving clear with Oliveira and Yukiya Arashiro (Europcar). They were soon joined by Alessandro De Marchi (BMC), Plaza, Mickael Cherel (Ag2r-La Mondiale), Jerome Coppel (IAM Cycling) and Cameron Meyer (Orica-GreenEdge), with Plaza leading the octet over the climb with a 30 second advantage.

While those riders were out front, however, one of the pre-race favourites was caught behind. Quintana, described as ‘empty’ by his team doctor after suffering from a fever and an upset stomach, was dropped on the climb and clearly in difficulty, though he did manage to regain contact.

A large chase group was forming behind and they linked up on the first-category climb of the Alto de Beratón to form a group of 24, where Plaza again took the mountains points. The new additions were: Sergio Henao and Nicolas Roche (Team Sky), Rinaldo Nocentini (Ag2r-La Mondiale), David Arroyo (Caja Rural), Yohan Bagot and Julien Simon (Cofidis), Niki Terpstra y Gianluca Brambilla (Etixx-Quick Step), Kenny Elissonde y Kevin Reza (FDJ), Valerio Conti (Lampre-Merida), Maxime Monfort (Lotto-Soudal), José Joaquín Rojas (Movistar), Stephen Cummings (MTN-Qhubeka), Romain Sicard (Europcar) and Pawel Poljanski (Tinkoff-Saxo).

As they made their way down the long and gentle descent the leaders’ advantage pushed out above four minutes, with Astana coming to the front just to keep an eye on things. Sicard and Brambilla were the closest to Aru on GC at well over six minutes and they probably held their breakaway companions back somewhat as Astana turned up the heat with the final climb of the day – the third-category Alto del Moncayo – looming.

Brambilla took the points at the intermediate sprint to be the best placed rider overall in the break just in case the peloton and Astana team lost time. However the climb started soon after, whereupon things became less amicable and more frantic in the break. Chavanel and Oliveira went off before Poljanski opened up a decent gap for a while, cresting the climb in first place.

Poljanski was caught before the descent though, and Oliveira took another flyer, charging down the mountain at 70km/h. He managed to open up a gap which grew and grew thanks to his handy descending skills and he then channelled his time trialling strength as the gradients eased.

In the breakaway group behind Lampre played it perfectly, with Plaza and Conti doing their best to slow the pace and mark any attacks. By the time the road started to kick up again slightly with seven kliometres to go, Lampre directeur sportif Orlando Maini had drawn up alongside his rider and was barking encouragement through the driver’s window.

There was no need because Oliveira’s his lead never waned and he was able to enjoy the final few hundred metres to the line in Tarazona and savour the biggest win of his career to date.

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