Vuelta a España: Oscar Rodriguez wins on La Camperona

Oscar Rodriguez (Euskadi-Murias) claimed the first win of his professional career as he soloed to victory atop La Camperona on stage 13 of the Vuelta a España, while Nairo Quintana (Movistar) and Simon Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) proved the strongest of the general classification contenders on the wickedly steep climb to the finish. Jesus Herrada (Cofidis) retained the red jersey of race leader, though with a reduced advantage over Yates and Quintana.

Rodriguez was part of the 32-man break that forged clear in the opening kilometres and remained in front to dispute stage victory on the fearsome slopes of La Camperona. The 23-year-old Spaniard is making his Grand Tour debut, but he showed poise beyond his years as he carefully dosed his effort on the final ascent to beat Rafal Majka (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Dylan Teuns (BMC Racing Team) to the line.

Although officially 8 kilometres in length, La Camperona's difficulty boils down to the vertiginous ramps of the final 3 kilometres, where the gradient even exceeds 20%. The leading group duly splintered as they reached that marker, with Majka forcing the pace 2.5km from the summit. Initially only Merhawi Kudus (Dimension Data) could put up any resistance, but when he dropped back, Teuns stepped up to the plate, catching Majka with 1800 metres remaining.

At that juncture, it looked like a two-man race, with Majka weaving across the road almost in slow motion at one point as he battled the twin threat of Teuns and gravity. As the gradient stiffened to new extremes, however, a figure in the luminescent colours of Euskadi-Murias could be seen bobbing his way up to their wheels.

Rodriguez caught the two leaders just shy of the flamme rouge, and shortly afterwards he began to inch his way clear of the two WorldTour riders. At first, Rodriguez didn't dare to look behind, but when he glanced over his shoulder with 800 metres remaining, he could see that Majka and Teuns were struggling to get on terms. His response was to climb from the saddle and hammer home his advantage.

"I can't believe I've taken a professional win, let alone a stage at the Vuelta," Rodriguez said. "I didn't believe I was going to win until the very end, and I still can't believe it."

Rodriguez crossed the line with 19 seconds to spare over an equally incredulous Majka, while Teuns held on for third, 30 seconds behind the Spaniard. The rest of the leading group were strewn across the mountainside. "Actually I'm surprised by this guy because in the end, when he caught me with Teuns, I still had good legs, but this guy when he was coming, he was coming really fast," Majka said as he warmed down. "This is cycling."

That was the race for the stage honours, but behind, the battle among the general classification contenders was only catching fire as they reached the stiffest part of the climb. The Astana team of Miguel Angel Lopez had been prominent in setting the tempo on the lower slopes of La Camperona, but the Colombian suffered a mechanical issue on the approach to the steepest section and had to stop to re-ship his chain.

By that point, Jack Haig (Mitchelton-Scott) had taken over on the front, and once the gradient began to bite, it was Simon Yates who duly came to the fore in the company of Quintana, while the group shattered behind them, with the red jersey of Herrada among those to concede ground.

Yates and Quintana matched one another pedal stroke for pedal stroke deep into the final kilometre, though the Colombian scored a psychological blow by kicking away from his rival within sight of the finish line. Quintana reached the finish 2:32 down on Rodriguez, while Yates came in a further 6 seconds back.

Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) led Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) home at 2:49, while Lopez recovered well from his setback to finish 3 seconds behind them, just ahead of a group containing Steven Kruijswijk (LottoNL-Jumbo), Wilco Kelderman (Sunweb) and Rigoberto Uran (EF-Drapac).

Herrada inched his way across the line 4:18 down on the stage, which was enough to keep him in the red jersey with 1:42 to spare over Yates, while Quintana moves up to third overall, 1:50 down. Valverde is now 4th at 1:54, with Lopez 5th at 2:23.

How it unfolded

A sizeable break went clear on the day's opening climb as Gorka Izaguirre (Bahrain-Merida), Ben Gastauer (AG2R-La Mondiale), Joseph Rosskopf, Dylan Teuns (BMC Racing Team), Marcus Burghardt, Rafal Majka, Jay McCarthy (Bora-Hansgrohe), Sander Armee, Thomas De Gendt, Bjorg Lambrecht, Maxime Monfort, Tosh Van Der Sande (Lotto Soudal), Imanol Erviti (Movistar), Laurens De Plus, Pieter Serry (Quick-Step Floors), Ben King, Merhawi Kudus (Dimension Data), Ilnur Zakarin, Jhonatan Restrepo (Katusha Alpecin), Sergio Henao (Team Sky), Jai Hindley (Team Sunweb), Bauke Mollema, Nicola Conci, Fabio Felline (Trek-Segafredo), Edward Ravasi (UAE Team Emirates), Jetse Bol (Burgos-BH), Alex Aranburu, Cristian Rodriguez (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA), Luis Angel Mate (Cofidis), Eduard Prades, Garikoitz Bravo and Oscar Rodriguez (Euskadi-Murias) escaped on the Alto de la Madera.

The escapees had a maximum lead of 9:30, which was whittled down to 6:22 come the summit of the category 1 Puerto de Tarna with 70km remaining, where De Gendt led the break over the top. Movistar led the pursuit of the break thereafter, but it was clear from some way out that the stage victory would come from the front group of 32.

Not even a low-speed crash with 30km remaining – De Plus was a faller, but remounted and rejoined the group – could thwart their progress, and the escapees hit the lower slopes of La Camperona with 3:35 in hand on the peloton. With Majka in mind, Bora-Hansgrohe's McCarthy and Burghardt set the tempo on the run-in to those viciously steep final kilometres, helping to reduce the size of the break in the process.

Once the climbing began in earnest, Ilnur Zakarin and King were initially to the fore, before Majka and – for a time – Kudus took over. Even when he was joined by Teuns, Majka was climbing with the look of a likely stage winner, but as the mountain drew on, there would be a surprising twist in the story, as Rodriguez edged his way across.

A couple of minutes down the road, meanwhile, Quintana and Yates were writing the preamble to a decisive chapter of this Vuelta. Summit finishes at Praeres and Lagos de Covadonga feature in the coming two days. The plot thickens.

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