Vuelta a España: Gaudu wins on Alto de la Farrapona

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David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) conquered the relentless climbing trek of stage 11 to win atop the Alto de la Farrapona on Saturday. The 24-year-old French rider screamed in delight as he crossed the line, gaining his first stage win of the year, and first Grand Tour victory of his career. 

Marc Soler (Movistar) finished on Gaudu's wheel and gained valuable time with his second place to vault from 10th to sixth in the general classification. The pair had jumped away from the rest of the break five kilometres from the line, working together until Gaudu's winning sprint 150 metres out.

Breakaway companions Guillaume Martin (Cofidis), and Sunweb duo of Mark Donovan and Michael Storer never let the peloton make the catch, with Storer finishing third on the stage, followed by Donovan in fourth, and three seconds later by Guillaume Martin, who would extend his led in the mountains classification.

"I screamed because I was relieved," said Gaudu after the stage. "The legs hurt in the past few days. I was complaining that it wasn’t going so well and this has been a complicated season. We struggled at the Tour de France and we came to La Vuelta to be more ambitious.

"Unfortunately Thibaut [Pinot] had to abandon but we stayed motivated together. To win here, at the summit, it’s amazing. I knew I’m explosive and I’m a very strong rider for this type of finish. When Marc Soler attacked with 500 metres to go, I saw the headwind forced him to quickly sit down again. I waited for the last 150 metres and I decided to give my all. I saw he was dropped with 75 metres and it was pure bliss."

Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma) and Richard Carapaz (Ineos) remained locked on the same time at the top of the general classification, with the Slovenian still in red on the tie breaker after taking the jersey under controversial circumstances on stage 10.

Roglič followed Dan Martin (Israel Start-Up Nation), Enric Mas (Movistar) and Richard Carapaz (Ineos Grenadiers) across the line just behind Vlasov.

Esteban Chaves (Mitchelton-Scott) was the biggest victim of the day, suffering a mechanical on the final climb and then cracking and dropping out of the top 10.

"It was OK, it was a hard day in the mountains - the first one for now, tomorrow something more and everything under control," Roglič said. "[Soler] is a super strong guy. He escaped and bridged over but we didn't want to panic, we have a super strong team, you saw the guys we did a super job. In the end, of course it's one on one - so far we can manage this ourselves and so far we are doing really good."

How it unfolded

Stage 11 of the coronavirus-pandemic-shortened 18-stage Vuelta a España started in typical 2020 fashion, with an uproar over the UCI commissaire's controversial decision to give Roglič a three-second gap to his rivals in the sprint on stage 10, putting the Slovenian back into the red race leader's jersey tied on time with previous leader Carapaz.

Carapaz's Ineos teammate Chris Froome led the protest to complain over the shift from the published rules that designated the stage as an expected bunch sprint, which would have meant the gap would be only one second and Carapaz still in red. The peloton was not unanimous in its decision to protest, however, with Cofidis Solutions Credits' Guillaume Martin rolling off the start line and Movistar following. 

With the expected finish coming near sunset after Europe went off daylight saving time, there wasn't a moment to lose with 170km to race over four classified climbs and the category 1 summit finish on the Alto de la Farrapona.

The stage began just 1km before the start of the first climb, the category 3 Alto de la Campa, a 8.3km long gradual climb that provided a perfect launching pad for the day's breakaway. Tim Wellens (Lotto Soudal) was the first to go clear, taking out the points at the top ahead of mountains classification leader Guillaume Martin (Cofidis Solutions Credits).

After the climb, Wellens was joined by his teammate Tosh van der Sande, Clément Champoussin (AG2R La Mondiale), José Joaquín Rojas (Movistar), Ion Izagirre (Astana), Gonzalo Serrano (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA), Magnus Cort (EF Pro Cycling), and Pierre-Luc Périchon (Cofidis Credits Solutions), while Tsgabu Grmay (Mitchelton-Scott), Juan Pedro López (Trek-Segafredo), Ivo Oliveira (UAE Team Emirates) and Gino Mäder (NTT Pro Cycling) tried to scramble across before the next climb.

The two groups came together before the Alto de la Colladona, but they never gained even a minute's lead over the red jersey group. Wellens and Perichon attacked on the climb and were chased by Mader, but the peloton led by Cofidis' Martin were just 15 seconds behind.

After all the effort get across to the escapees, Martin missed the points after an attack from Bruno Armirail (Groupama-FDJ) drew out Nelson Oliveira (Movistar) - who took the maximum points - over Michael Storer (Sunweb), Niklas Eg (Trek-Segafredo), and Mark Donovan (Sunweb). David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) and Tim Wellens jumped across after the crest, making it an eight-man breakaway.

Heading into the next climb, the Alto de la Cobertoria, the leaders still had two minutes over the peloton. Movistar's Marc Soler, sitting 10th overall, 3:52 down on Roglič, attacked and managed to move his way into the breakaway to make it nine riders. Martin claimed the maximum points on the Cobertoria but on the descent, Eg misjudged a turn on the descent and went off-roading. The Danish rider stayed upright but had to come to a stop and had to chase back to the group.

On the penultimate climb, the Puerto de San Lorenzo, Estaban Chaves (Mitchelton-Scott) ran into trouble with a mechanical and had to expend critical energy to chase back into the peloton, while up ahead Eg lost touch with the leaders as the gap came down to 2:38.

Jumbo-Visma kept the gap at a reasonable level on the San Lorenzo as Martin led the breakaway over the top, extending his lead in the mountains classification and riders grabbed last-minute bottles, gels and some newspaper to put in the jersey for the fast, chilly descent. The breakaway and peloton ascended without attacks, saving all of their energy for the 1708m high Farrapona.

Soler tried to open a gap on the descent but the seven remaining members of the escape - minus Eg, now back in the peloton - started the final climb with a three-minute gap as UAE Team Emirates came to the front of the peloton to protect David de la Cruz' 13th place overall from Gaudu.

Armirail was the first rider to drop from the breakaway, while Oliveira came next with 11.5km to go after pulling hard to give Soler an advantage of 2:45 on the red jersey. Chaves was the first contender to lose touch with the peloton halfway up the climb.

Once the gradient began to kick up more severely, however, Martin began sitting on, watching for attacks. The move came from Soler with 5km to go, as the climb pitched to 9 per cent and Gaudu was the only one able to jump across. The pair kept the peloton at the two-minute mark, with the Frenchman hoping for the stage win while the Spaniard was steadily climbing up the standings from 10th over Wout Poels (Bahrain McLaren), Chaves, Felix Grossschartner (Bora-Hansgrohe) as well as his own teammate Alejandro Valverde.

But Jumbo-Visma's Jonas Vingegaard set a brisk tempo in the red jersey group, whittling down the bunch to 20 or so riders, but more importantly distancing all of Carapaz's teammates, with Amador the last to leave with 4km to go. With 1km to go, the pair had two minutes on the red jersey, with Storer and Donovan chasing at 35 seconds and the pace ramping up in the peloton behind.

In the final kilometre, an attack from Aleksandr Vlasov (Astana) halved the leaders' advantage, with Dan Martin also putting in a move with 200m to go with Mas, Roglič and Carapaz glued to his wheel to finish with the GC in status quo. In the end, Soler had gained a minute and change and moved into fifth overall.