Vuelta a España: Roglic rebounds to win stage 8 on Alto de Moncalvillo

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Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma) claimed his second victory of the 2020 Vuelta a España on Wednesday, triumphing on the Alto de Moncalvillo on stage 8 to move back up to second overall.

The Slovenian was unable to recover the red jersey he lost at Formigal due to a clothing mistake, but surged decisively away from his rivals in the final kilometre of the Vuelta’s newest steep summit finish.

Race leader Richard Carapaz (Ineos Grenadiers), himself an attacking force towards the top of the 8.3km climb, was unable to respond when Roglič countered one of his accelerations with 750m to go.

The Ecuadorian placed second on the stage, 13 seconds down, with Dan Martin (Israel Start-Up Nation) third at 19 seconds.

Hugh Carthy (EF Pro Cycling) kicked off the hostilities between the overall favourites 3.5km from the top of the summit finish, after his teammate Michael Woods had reduced the front group to just 10. However, the Briton was unable to follow the punchier accelerations from Roglič and Carapaz and settled for fifth on the stage at 33 seconds, just behind Alexander Vlasov (Astana).

It was a worse situation for Enric Mas and Movistar, who piled on the pressure on the preceding category 2 climb of the Puerto de la Rosa, split the bunch in the valley, and hit the Moncalvillo en masse, but left empty-handed. After Alejandro Valverde – who launched an early attack – and Marc Soler were both dropped with 4.5km to go, Mas was himself dropped when Carapaz accelerated from the lead group of seven with 2.5km to go. The 25-year-old Movistar rider finished seventh at 54 seconds, after being caught and passed by Wout Poels (Bahrain McLaren) in the final 1500 metres.

Carapaz holds onto the red jersey, although his lead has now been cut to 13 seconds by Roglič. Martin is still third, now at 28 seconds, while Carthy falls to fourth at 44 seconds. 

There’s now clear daylight between those four and Mas in fifth at 1:54, with Felix Grossschartner (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Esteban Chaves (Mitchelton-Scott) – who finished 2:05 and 1:33 down on Roglic, respectively – tied for time in sixth and seventh at 3:28. Valverde and Soler find themselves a touch further back, while Poels – sixth on the stage – moved three places up into the top 10.

“I always like to win, so if there is a small opportunity I will take it,” Roglič said. “It was super hard today and luckily I had the legs and I'm happy to win the stage. It's nice to get some time back but most of all it's nice to win the race.”

How it unfolded

The day started with news of three non-starters. Tom Dumoulin (Jumbo-Visma), already well down on GC, left through fatigue, Kenny Elissonde (Trek-Segafredo) departed through stomach problems, and Michal Golas (Ineos Grenadiers) left for personal reasons.

On the early rolling roads of the 164km stage, a seven-man breakaway soon formed. Robert Stannard (Mitchelton-Scott), Stan Dewulf (Lotto Soudal), Benjamin Dyball (NTT Pro Cycling) and Angel Madrazo (Burgos-BH) went clear first, followed by Rui Costa (UAE Team Emirates), Rémi Cavagna (Deceuninck-QuickStep) and, after a solo chase, Julien Simon (Total Direct Energie).

Costa was the best-placed on GC, 23:44 down in 33rd place, and the group was allowed a leash of five minutes as race leader Carapaz’s Ineos Grenadiers teammates took control of the peloton.

After 80km the road started to tilt more definitively uphill towards the first of the two climbs, the second category Puerto de la Rasa. That’s where the gap started to come down, and Caja Rural-Seguros RGA sensed the opportunity to make up for missing the original break, firing Hector Saéz and Jhojan García up the road. Saéz did the work as they quickly opened a minute, before dropping back and leaving García to it.

However, as soon as the Puerto de la Rasa – 9.8km long at 5.3 per cent – started, Movistar began their offensive. García was caught, and by the top, the breakaway, led over the top by Cavagna, had only 2:40 in hand.

Ineos Grenadiers briefly took it back on the descent, but Movistar weren’t in the mood for the back seat and raised the tempo once more. The descent gave way to a more gentle downhill section, followed by a stint in the valley, and the Spanish team kept the pace high throughout. With 40km to go, their pace was such that they split the bunch, leaving many scrambling to get back on terms.

On the flatter valley roads inside the last 30km, there were only 50 riders left in the main bunch, and the gap to the break had been shredded to a minute. Madrazo was the first to drop from the break, and with Movistar continuing their effort all the way, only Dewulf and Dyball made it onto the final climb.

The pair, however, were caught after just 500 metres, as Movistar took it up on the steep lower slopes. They tried to shake things up with a Valverde attack, but Jumbo-Visma’s Robert Gesink comfortably snuffed it out. 

EF Pro Cycling, who were never far from the front of the peloton all day, then took it up through Woods, and that’s where the damage was really done. Valverde had to pull out of the line and was soon dropped, along with Soler, Grossschartner, Guillaume Martin (Cofidis), David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) and David De la Cruz (UAE Team Emirates).

Woods had reduced the group to just nine – Carthy, Carapaz, Roglič, Mas, Dan Martin, Kuss, Chaves, Poels, Vlasov – when Carthy launched his attack with 3.6km to go. Kuss went with him and the pair stayed out front as Martin and Vlasov gave chase. Chaves was then dropped as Carapaz, Roglič, Poels and Mas joined forces in a chase, several seconds back, with Valverde and co already at 50 seconds.

With 2.5km to go, Carthy and Kuss were caught, and Kuss immediately went on the attack. It was short-lived, though, as Carapaz issued a stinging counter. Roglič was straight on the case, and the pair went clear as Poels was well dropped.

With 1.8km to go, Carthy, followed by Martin and Vlasov, all managed to claw their way back to Carapaz and Roglič, though Mas started to suffer. Vlasov used a flatter section to attack, but after some hesitation from the rest, his gap was wiped out when Roglič accelerated with just over a kilometre to go. 

He breezed by the Russian, as did Carapaz. The pair linked up and Carapaz tried to hit Roglič as the gradient eased with 800m to go, but he went nowhere, and had no response when Roglič launched his own winning move right away.