Vuelta a España: Ion Izagirre prevails on Formigal on stage 6

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Richard Carapaz (Ineos Grenadiers) seized control on a cold and rainy stage 6 of the Vuelta a España, attacking to gain 43 seconds on overnight leader Primoz Roglic and take the leader's red jersey.

Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) showed the first signs of weakness in the Vuelta a España on the final climb of the Formigal, slipping out of the overall lead after attacks from Carapaz and Hugh Carthy (EF Pro Cycling).

Further ahead, Ion Izagirre (Astana) won the stage from the breakaway, making his move on the final climb after an earlier attack by his brother and teammate Gorka. The victory makes it a full-set at Grand Tours for Izagirre, who won at the Tour de France in 2016 and at the Giro d’Italia in 2012.

Carthy gained the most time of the top contenders, moving into second overall at 18 seconds from Carapaz, with Dan Martin (Israel Start-Up Nation) fighting to hold the podium position in third at 20 seconds.

Roglic did not respond when one-by-one riders like David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ), David de la Cruz (UAE Team Emirates) and Marc Soler (Movistar) shot out the front of the peloton on the climb, encouraging Carapaz and Carthy to make their own moves.

Those five riders came together as the summit approached, while Roglic languished around twenty seconds behind with Dan Martin (EF Pro Cycling) and Enric Mas (Movistar) for company.

Carthy managed to put some distance between himself and the others with a strong sprint at the top, putting seven seconds into Carapaz, Gaudu and Soler.

Dan Martin arrived 35 seconds behind the British rider, with Roglic further back still at 50 seconds, and Enric Mas another five seconds adrift.

How it unfolded

Despite the Vuelta a España stage no longer taking place on the fabled ‘circle of death’ Pyrenean climbs due to a Covid-enforced rearrangement announced earlier this week, stage 6 still featured a tough mountainous parcours, finishing atop the category one climb to Formigal.

Many riders hoped to get a head start ahead of that final climb by getting into the day’s breakaway, and the stage began with multiple attacks out of the peloton.

Out of the melee, Remi Cavagna (Deceuninck-QuickStep) found himself off the front alone, with a large group close behind. That group soon joined the Frenchman to form the breakaway of the day.

In that break were: Ion and Gorka Izagirre (Astana), Matteo Cattaneo (Deceuninck-QuickStep), Sergio Henao, Rui Costa (both UAE Team Emirates), Carlos Verona, Jorge Arcas (both Movistar), Julien Amezqueta (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA), Robert Power, Michael Storer, Jasha Sutterlin (all Sunweb), Michael Valgren (NTT Pro Cycling), Dylan van Baarle (Ineos Grenadiers), Michael Woods, Magnus Cort (both EF Pro Cycling), Quentin Jauregui (AG2R La Mondiale), Oscar Cabedo (Burgos BH), Guillaume Martin, Victor Lafay, Pierre Luc Perichon (all Cofidis) and Jonathan Hivert (Total Direct Energy).

Jumbo-Visma did not totally ease up at the front of the peloton, but the break’s advantage did nevertheless grow up to almost four minutes before the first climb of the day, the Alto de Petralba. That meant Gorka Izagirre, who was the highest-ranked rider in the break in 19th overall at 3:37, became the virtual red jersey.

Nobody contested Guillaume Martin as he rolled over the top of the climb first in an attempt to close the deficit between himself and leader Tim Wellens (Lotto-Soudal) in the Mountains Classification.

The weather took a turn for the worse as the rain, which had only been a drizzle up, began to come down heavier, making for a cautious descent of the mountain. It cleared up a little by the time they reached the next climb, the Puerto de Cotefablo, but many rain jackets continued to be worn.

Israel Start-Up Nation joined Jumbo-Visma at the front of the peloton on the climb, but the gap to the breakaway remained steady, as the break reached the top with a lead of 3:33.

This time Guillaume Martin faced competition as Michael Storer sprinted for points at the top of the climb, although the Frenchman still managed to take maximum points.

The descent was wet and nervous and saw small splits in both the breakaway, where Gorka Izagirre went clear, and in the peloton, where Andrey Amador’s pace was quick enough to see him and his Ineos Grandiers leader Richard Carapaz gain a small advantage.

Although that trio was promptly reabsorbed by the peloton, Izagirre continued to push on and held a lead of 45 seconds by the bottom of the descent. Behind him, the rest of the break was beginning to split up on the draggy roads leading to the official start of the final climb, with about a dozen riders going clear of the rest, and by the foot of the climb, they were 14 seconds behind Gorka Izagirre.

Back in the peloton, Primoz Roglic had a mechanical shortly before the start of the climb but managed to catch up without any more problems.

After dangling ahead for the first part of the climb, Gorka Izagirre was eventually swallowed up by the rest of the break 6.6km from the finish. He still had enough left in his legs to briefly set a pace for his brother Ion, who launched his stage-winning attack 3km from the top, shortly after Michael Woods (EF Pro Cycling) had upped the pace on some of the climb’s steepest gradients. The Canadian went on to finish second.

Although the breakaway did ultimately succeed, it was not a done deal as Movistar set a fast pace in the peloton. Although Jumbo-Visma’s George Bennett managed to calm things down temporarily, attacks started to fly out of the bunch.

First David de la Cruz (UAE Team Emirates) made a move, shortly followed by David Gaudu being led by his Groupama-FDJ teammate Bruno Armirail. Marc Soler (Movistar) was the first genuinely dangerous GC rider to jump, and all hell broke loose once it became evident that Roglic was struggling and unable to follow the moves.

A dangerous quartet of Carapaz, Carthy, Soler and Gaudu emerged from the chaos, enhanced by the miserable weather conditions, with Roglic left without a teammate in a small group about twenty seconds behind.

Carthy attacked near the top of the summit, and was the strongest of all the other GC riders by putting daylight between himself and them. He moves up from fifth to second overall as a result, but it’s Richard Carapaz who will wear the red jersey when the Vuelta kicks off again after tomorrow’s rest day.