Romain Bardet wins Vuelta a España stage to Pico Villuercas

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Romain Bardet (Team DSM) finally got the stage win he had searched so hard for at the Vuelta a España, winning atop the 14.7km Pico Villuercas in the depth of the central Extremadura region.

The Frenchman was part of an 18-rider breakaway and then chased down the attacks and went clear himself in the final kilometres of the climb to the finish.

Jesus Herrada (Cofidis) emerged to finish 44 seconds behind Bardet, with Australia’s Jay Vine (Alpecin-Fenix) third despite crashing at speed mid-stage after contact with his team car.

Britain’s Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers) made some sense of his presence at the Vuelta by going on the attack and finishing fourth at 1:12.

The overall contenders were happy for the breakaway to open a 10-minute lead during the stage and then Jumbo-Visma controlled their rivals and hurt Odd Christian Eiking (Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux) in the final kilometres of the Pico Villuercas.

Miguel Angel Lopez (Movistar) edged clear in the final three kilometres but Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma) closed him down near the line and distanced Eiking. 

Only Enric Mas (Movistar), Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) and Jack Haig (Bahrain Victorious) were able to stay with Roglič. Eiking finished 20 seconds down on them but kept the leader’s red jersey for another day.

Bardet knew that the other riders in the breakaway would race against him but he was able to land his attacks at the right moment and then Herrada and Vine and unable to come back to him.

The Frenchman has finished on the Tour de France podium twice but had not won a stage in a Grand Tour since 2017. He moved to Team DSM in 2021 to find new motivation and opted to miss the Tour and ride the Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a España. He finished seventh in Italy but a crash on stage 5 ended his overall hopes in Spain.

"It's been a long wait. It means a lot. I've been second two many times," Bardet said.

"Today I went full gas to be in the good break. I know that taking the polka-dot jersey it'd be a double victory. It's fantastic."

"I had a hard time catching the other guys in front of me because I had the feeling that no one really wanted to commit in the break. I think we played it smart with my sports director and he told me exactly when to attack on the steepest part of the climb and go for it as if the finish was there in front of me. I opened a good gap and made it to the finish."

Team DSM have had a disappointing season but have now won three stages at the Vuelta, with Michael Storer taking two.

"Everyone is tired but the spirit is so high in the team, we've had three stage wins and a podium, so the morale is high," Bardet said.

"We're all focused and I'm so happy to be part of a good group of guys. We're enjoying ourselves and trying to do our best for the team. It's an amazing Vuelta."

How it unfolded

The riders were happy that temperatures were 'only' 28C at the start in Don Benito as they faced another hot and mountainous day in the saddle as they continued to cross the barren, near-desert, Extremadura region.

The 14.7km Pico Villuercas mountain finish was always going to inspire a breakaway attempt and so create a race within the race, as the adventurers chased glory, the overall contenders watched each other and Odd Christian Eiking (Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux) tried to defend the leader's red jersey.

The break formed soon after the flag drop to signal the start of the 165.7km stage.

18 riders were in the move, including real contenders like Bardet, Vine and Pidcock, while the likes of Arnaud Demare (Groupama-FDJ) was there for more illogical reasons.

The 18 were Clément Champoussin, Nicolas Prodhomme (AG2R-Citroën), Jay Vine (Alpecin-Fenix), Jan Tratnik (Bahrain Victorious), Dani Navarro (Burgos-BH), Aritz Bagües (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA), Jesus Herrada (Cofidis), Jens Keukeleire (EF Education-Nippo), Xabier Mikel Azparren (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Arnaud Démare, Kevin Geniets (Groupama-FDJ), Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers), Sep Vanmarcke (Israel Start-Up Nation), Matt Holmes (Lotto Soudal), Andrey Zeits (Team BikeExchange), Romain Bardet (Team DSM), Dylan Sunderland (Team Qhubeka NextHash) and Ryan Gibbons (UAE Team Emirates).

There were no overall threats in the attack and so the peloton soon let them go but Bardet was targeting Damiano Caruso's mountain's jersey, with Tratnik there to try to limit his points scoring.

After 30km the 18 riders lead the peloton by 4:00, with Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux leading the line and honouring race leadership. The gap reached 7:40 with 120km to go as the flat roads changed to climbs.

The 7.7km Puerto Berzocana was the first categorised of the stage and Bardet was first to top to close the gap on Caruso to just one point.

The steeper Puerto Collado de Ballesteros came soon after but the break stayed together because there was 65km and a long valley road to ride. Bardet was again first to the summit, scoring ten points and so moving past Caruso and into the blue polka-dot jersey. However, he wisely waited for his fellow adventurers and they dived down the descent together. The peloton pulled back a minute on the climb but their gap slipped to 10:00 minutes, meaning the overall contenders were not interested in the stage victory.

The unity in the 18-rider break ended with 50km to go on a series of short climbs. Holmes went first and Prodhomme and Navarro joined him up front only for the Briton to puncture and slip back. They worked well together and pushed their lead out to a minute with 30km to go.

The pace was high on the climbs and descents and Navarro and Vanmarcke crashed out on a curve as the break came back together.

Prodhomme was ahead and went deep, managing to open a gap of a minute as the 14.7km Pico Villuercas began. He looked on a charge for a moment but then Bardet set off in pursuit with 12km to go. Others closed down Bardet, including Vine, who had fought back from his high-speed crash at 35km to go but looked battered and bruised.

Pidcock, Champoussin and Herrada were part of the chase as Zeits made a solo effort to cross to Prodhomme but then Bardet attacked from behind and caught them both with six kilometres to go.

He did not look back, giving his all on a solo ride to a well-deserved victory.

The peloton was not as aggressive behind, with Jumbo-Visma controlling the peloton for much of the day and on the last climb.

Cofidis tried to drop Eiking on the second half of the climb in an attempt to put Guillaume Martin in the race lead but the Norwegian fought to limit his losses and managed to get back onto the tail of the select GC group.

Giulio Ciccone (Trek-Segafredo) tried an attack but Jumbo-Visma closed him down. Lopez tried a move and got a gap with three kilometres to go but Roglič surged after him, again showing who is in charge of the 2021 Vuelta a España.