Vuelta a España stage 6: Jay Vine conquers Pal in Andorra from breakaway

Jay Vine scored UAE Team Emirates-XRG’s second win in as many days at the Vuelta a España, soloing to stage 6 glory from the breakaway after attacking over the day’s penultimate climb.

Vine captured his team’s 75th victory of the season after proving the strongest from the 10-man break. The Australian went clear on the short but sharp La Comella climb with 21km to go of the 170km stage before pulling out a minute’s gap and holding on up the 9.6km climb to the finish in Pal Andorra.

The 29-year-old raced on solo for the win and with it the blue and white polka dot jersey as mountain classification leader, while behind him, another jersey changed hands.

Torstein Træen (Bahrain Victorious), who started the stage 58 seconds off Jonas Vingegaard’s (Visma-Lease A Bike) red jersey, came home in second place at 54 seconds, propelling him into the race lead as the GC men finished over four minutes down.

“It was definitely to win the stage, but there was always the option that if the break wasn’t going to win, that I could come back and do some work,” Vine said after his win.

“I know these roads pretty well. I’m from just down the hill, and La Comella is my favourite climb in all of Andorra. I would’ve normally liked to have done it way harder but with the headwind, it was hard to get the guys to pull through and make it really hard.

“I decided to go at the top and with the wet descent, I know the descent really well and I thought ‘OK, this is my chance to get away and then there’s no funny business. It’s just mano y mano’.

“The Vuelta wasn’t on my schedule originally, so to be able to win in Andorra in front of my son and wife is unbelievable and incredibly motivating. That last 5km, all I could think of was ‘This is for you Harrison, this is for you’.”

While Vine soared to the third Vuelta stage win of his career, the day wasn’t all joy for his UAE team. Back down the mountain, GC co-leader Juan Ayuso surprisingly dropped from the GC group at 4km from the finish, eventually losing 11:51.

The team will now look towards João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) as their sole GC hopeful, with the Portuguese rider having led the GC group home at 4:19. He was joined in the group by Vingegaard, Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek), Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) and many of the other big names, with the day providing no huge GC surprises – barring Ayuso’s implosion.

Træen now leads the Vuelta over fellow breakaway riders Bruno Armirail (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) and Lorenzo Fortunato (XDS-Astana), the pair lying at 31 seconds and 1:01 down. Vingegaard is the best-placed GC favourite, lying 2:33 down in fifth overall.

How it unfolded

Stage 6 of the Vuelta a España headed into the high mountains for the first time, tackling four major climbs and 3,600 metres of climbing on the road to Andorra.

The 170km stage took the peloton from Olot to Pal with climbs along the way including the third category Coll de Sentigosa (11.4km at 4.1%), the first category Collada de Toses (24.3km at 3.5%), the second category La Comella (4.2km at 8%), and the first category closing ascent (9.6km at 6.3%) at 1,901 metres of altitude.

The battle for the breakaway began right away with the Coll de Sentigosa coming right at the start of the stage. Attacks flew on the way up and it wasn’t long before a group of 10 – the day’s breakaway – went clear.

Vine, Træen, Fortunato, and Armirail were among the notable names in the move. Joining them in the break were Pablo Castrillo (Movistar), Ramses Debruyne (Alpecin-Deceuninck), the EF Education-EasyPost duo James Shaw and Archie Ryan, and Soudal-QuickStep pair Louis Vervaeke and Gianmarco Garofoli.

Back in the peloton, Visma-Lease A Bike took up the pacemaking on behalf of race leader Jonas Vingegaard, while the break raced four minutes up the road.

Vervaeke was on a mission, lying just three points off mountain classification leader Joel Nicolau (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA). He grabbed two points over the top of the Sentigosa, moving one point down, while at the top of the long Collada de Toses, the Belgian lead the race to take 10 points and move into the virtual KOM lead.

Racing through the rain and down into the valley on the other side, the break grew their advantage to five minutes with both Visma-Lease A Bike and UAE Team Emirates-XRG continuing to control behind.

The gap was up to 5:30 at the lowest point in the valley with 55km to go, with the uphill run into Andorra and the two final climbs left to tackle. With no massive impetus from behind to speed up the pace, that only crept up over six minutes during the next 15km.

The pace behind went up as the day’s penultimate climb, La Comella, neared, however. At the base of the mountain with 25km to go, the 10 men of the break held an ever-reducing gap of 5:20.

Raúl García Pierna (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) made a short-lived move out of the peloton on the 4.2km climb, though the big favourites preferred to stay put as Visma-Lease A Bike continued to control.

Up front, Armirail struggled to stay in touch as Vine led over the top ahead of Vervaeke, while back in the peloton, Almeida battled back from an untimely bike change.

Vine pushed on alone at the front, pulling out a 50-second gap as he raced through his adopted home of Andorra and into the final 10km. He hit the start of the final 9.6km climb with a minute’s advantage while the peloton lay just over five minutes back.

Behind Vine, it was Armirail, Castrillo, Shaw, Ryan, Træen, Vervaeke, and Fortunato who proved the best of the rest, but none of the men could make a real dent into the lead. Træen struck out alone in the final 5.5km, with the red jersey on his mind as he lay just 58 seconds off Vingegaard.

Back in the peloton, Lidl-Trek pushed the pace, leaving Juan Ayuso surprisingly in trouble at 4km from the top. The Spaniard dropped back from a peloton which still counted around 20 riders in the group.

Lidl-Trek continued to lead it towards the top, setting up their man Giulio Ciccone to attack into the final kilometres of the climb. Vingegaard was the first to react before the Dane went to the front and pulled out a gap along with Ciccone.

Behind them, Almeida led the chase on the front of the group behind, eventually dragging several riders back to Vingegaard and Ciccone in time for the final kilometre. Bernal, Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain Victorious), and Felix Gall (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) were also up there.

Vingegaard’s teammates Sepp Kuss and Matteo Jorgenson came across for the final run to the line, while Tom Pidcock (Q36.5) and several others also joined the group, leading to a 12-man GC group riding to the finish together.

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