Vuelta a España Stage Report: Michael Woods won the thirteenth stage of the Vuelta a España from a big break. The Canadian champion of Israel-Premier Tech soloed to victory on the steep final climb of Puerto de Ancaras. Primoz Roglič (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) was the best of the GC riders, the Slovenian dropped the others, including the red jersey, Ben O’Connor (Decathlon-AG2R-La Mondiale), who managed to hold onto the overall lead by just 1:21.
Stage 13 final K
Vuelta race director, Fernando Escartín: “Lugo roads should encourage an escape to take place before entering León territory. The Alto Campo de Arbre, a Category 3 climb, will serve as a prologue for the final climb up to the Ancares Mountain Pass on its León slope – an unprecedented climb in La Vuelta, consisting of 7.7 km with an inclination of 9% and ramps of 15%, and an inclination 12% during the last 5 km. This finale will be very important to the men fighting for the general classification.”
Stage 13 profile
Stage 13: Stage 13 is the last day in Galicia and there are a few big climbs on the menu, before the finish on the Puerto de Ancaras in Cantabria, a climb of crushing gradients. The start of the stage is quite easy, with climbs of Cat.3 and Cat.2 that shouldn’t bother anyone. The Alto Campo de Arbre (6km at 5.1%) and the Alto O Portel (7.8km at 5.2%) are not too steep. The Puerto de Lumeras (6.7km at 6%) is a warm-up for the Puerto de Ancares, which comes in 8 kilometres. The Puerto de Ancares (7.6km at 8.9%) has a gradient of 9% and becomes steeper and steeper in sections. After the 3rd kilometre, the gradient never drops below 10%. The penultimate kilometre is the toughest, with an average percentage of 14% and sections above 20%.
Everyone wants a photo of Wout
Early in the stage a large break of 24 riders formed: Wout van Aert (Visma | Lease a Bike), Jay Vine, Brandon McNulty and Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates), Kasper Asgreen (T-Rex Quick-Step), Sam Oomen (Lidl-Trek), Kim Heiduk (INEOS Grenadiers), Kaden Groves and Luca Vergallito (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Michael Woods and Dylan Teuns (Israel-Premier Tech), Victor Campenaers and Sylvain Moniquet (Lotto Dstny), Mauro Schmid (Jayco AlUla), Simon Gugliemi and Mathis Le Berre (Arkéa-B&B Hotels), Gijs Leemreize, Julius van den Berg and Enzo Leijnse (dsm-firmenich PostNL), Rubén Fernández (Cofidis), Nicolas Vinokourov (Astana Qazaqstan), José Félix Parra (Equipo Kern Pharma), Mikel Bizkarra and Xabier Isasa (Euskaltel-Euskadi).
Stage 12 winner, Pablo Castrillo (Equipo Kern Pharma), interviewed by Laura Meseguer for Eurosport at the start
The first climb of the day was a Cat.3 climb and it was green jersey Wout van Aert who was the first over the top to take over the lead in the KOM classification. The break continued to work well together and their lead increased, as the peloton was not too interested. It became obvious that the stage win would go to the break again. On the Alto O Portelo there was a split in the leading group, as there was a battle for the mountain points. Van Aert went for them, but had to fight with Vine and Soler. The two UAE Team Emirates riders couldn’t stop Van Aert extending his lead in the KOM.
KOM, Adam Yates at the start – Will he need to fight off Van Aert for the jersey?
The action came with almost 50 kilometres to go. Campenaerts realised that he was not going to make it with the group over the last two climbs, so he attacked on a flat section. Van Aert, Schmid and Gugliemi joined him. UAE Team Emirates and dsm-firmenich-PostNL, who both had three riders in the leading group, saw the danger and did everything they could to close the gap, but with riders like Campenaerts and Van Aert, they had a lot to do.
The Lugo City Walls, a World Heritage Site, surround the old city centre with its Roman structure
Campenaerts, Van Aert, Schmid and Gugliemi rode away, the four became three, because Gugliemi was dropped. Campenaerts, Van Aert and Schmid were on their way to a 1 minute lead, but the UAE Team Emirates riders pulled everything out to pull them back. The lead group was now only nine riders.
A lot of riders wanted to be in the ‘break of the day’
Van Aert took the full points at the intermediate sprint, Oomen, Leemreize, Schmid, Soler, McNulty, Vine, Schmid, Asgreen and Woods followed him across the sprint line. Next up was the Puerto de Lumeras (6.6km at 5.9%). The group didn’t stay together for long, due to an attack from Vine, this caused Asgreen to be dropped.
Van Aert was looking for more points
The next to try was Soler, who had just been hanging on earlier. The Spaniard went solo for a while on the Puerto de Lumeras, but in the last kilometre of the climb Van Aert went past him. The Belgian took all the KOM points again for the lead of the KOM. On the descent of the Puerto de Lumeras McNulty misjudged a bend and he and his teammate, Vine hit the barrier.
Dylan Teuns and Israel-Premier Tech teammate, Canadian champion Michael Woods both made it into the big break
McNulty ended up in the ravine, but the American escaped fairly unscathed, although he did have cuts on his face. The crash did cause the leading group to split up. Van Aert, Oomen, Schmid, Woods and Soler rode on, as Vine tried to close the gap. Leemreize had already been dropped on the Puerto de Lumeras.
Swiss champ, Mauro Schmid (Jayco AlUla) was also off the front
The five leaders started the Puerto de Ancaras, the final climb. This climb was 7.5 kilometres long with an average gradient of 9%. The last 5 kilometres were the hardest, there the gradient didn’t go below 10% and there was also ramps of 15%. Behind; the peloton wasn’t pushing hard and they were at over 15 minutes.
The break had over 17 minutes at one time
At the start of the final 5 kilometres there was an acceleration from the Swiss champion, Schmid who dropped Van Aert, Oomen and Soler. Woods was the only one who could follow and then he made his move. The Israel-Premier Tech Canadian champion cracked Schmid and went solo.
Ben O’Connor will be hoping not to lose more time
With one kilometre to go, Woods had 30 seconds on the others. The Canadian champion soloed to victory in the thirteenth stage of the Vuelta. This was Woods third Spanish Grand Tour stage victory.
The strongmen of the escape
Schmid was second at 45 seconds. Soler caught the Swiss champion in the final kilometres, but had nothing left in his legs. He finished third at more than a minute. Oomen was fourth, ahead of Van Aert. Leemreize took a good sixth place.
The peloton was waiting for the summit finish
In the GC group, Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe lifted the speed in the thinned out peloton. There was only Primoz Roglič, Enric Mas and Sepp Kuss left at the front a few kilometres from the summit. These three were the strongest GC men of the day, but after another acceleration from Roglič, only Mas could follow. Kuss tried to recover and was passed by Mikel Landa, who had chosen his own pace.
The north of Spain is very different for the south
Van Aert was outnumbered by UAE Team Emirates until Vine and McNulty missed a bend
There was no battle between Roglič and Mas, because the Slovenian accelerate again. Mas couldn’t follow, the Spaniard had blown up under the pressure. Roglič showed that he is the top favourite for the final overall victory in the 2024 Vuelta a España.
Soler tried and failed again
In the final kilometre there was quite a few changes. Landa was the rider who was able to stay closest to Roglič, he lost about 30 seconds. Mattias Skjelmose finished ahead of Carlos Rodríguez and David Gaudu. Mas and Kuss lost about a minute to Roglić. The overall leader, O’Connor, suffered on the final climb. The Australian lost almost 2 minutes and Roglič got closer on the general classification, now 1:21.
Solo win for the Canadian champion – Michael Woods
Another Grand Tour stage win for Michael Woods
Stage winner, Michael Woods (Israel Premier Tech): “I’m on cloud nine right now. My big goal was to win a race with [the Canadian champion jersey]. I’ve had a tough season this season. It’s been a tough race. And this is a big moment of catharsis, a big release. The pressure has been building and to get this win now, I’m on cloud nine. I was super lucky to get in the breakaway with Dylan [Teuns] and Riley Sheehan. They did a great job. I was a bit isolated later on when UAE had Jay Vine, Brandon McNulty and Marc Soler attacking me. When Brandon and Jay crashed, it really scared me. I hope they’re okay. Then I knew I was the guy to beat on the climb. I had the Puy-de-Dôme in my head. I knew that as long as I had the guys within striking distance I had a shot at winning because the climb really suited me. I didn’t want to go as early as Mauro [Schmid] did but then I had to. It was a long 4 kilometres to be alone. I just miss the Giro stage. 3rd Vuelta stage, I’m really proud of that. I’m not getting any younger, so it’s always nice to win at this age and I’m gonna savour this.”
Primoz Roglič was taking time back from O’Connor
Overall leader, Ben O’Connor (Decathlon-AG2R-La Mondiale): “I was pretty cooked. Sad times but I’m still in red so at least it’s a good thing. To be honest, I was already dropped [when Roglič attacked] so I didn’t really see it. I was trying to manage my effort as I didn’t really have much going on today. Who knows how it will be in the coming days? In Granada, I felt good, today I didn’t really have anything. Tomorrow, I’ll just try to do my best to recover, have another day in the red jersey and see how Sunday goes.”
Ben O’Connor fought hard to keep his jersey
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Vuelta a España Stage 13 Result:
1. Michael Woods (Can) Israel-Premier Tech in 4:19:51
2. Mauro Schmid (Sui) Jayco AlUla at 0:45
3. Marc Soler (Spa) UAE Team Emirates at 1:11
4. Sam Oomen (Ned) Lidl-Trek at 1:25
5. Wout van Aert (Bel) Visma | Lease a Bike at 2:56
6. Gijs Leemreize (Ned) dsm-firmenich-PostNL at 3:33
7. Jose Felix Parra Cuerda (Spa) Equipo Kern Pharma at 5:19
8. Mikel Bizkarra Etxegibel (Spa) Euskaltel-Euskadi at 5:38
9. Luca Vergallito (Ita) Alpecin-Deceuninck at 5:59
10. Mathis Le Berre (Fra) Arkéa-B&B Hotels at 6:15.
Vuelta a España Overall After Stage 13:
1. Ben O’Connor (Aus) Decathlon-AG2R-La Mondiale in 52:10:15
2. Primož Roglič (Slo) Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe at 1:21
3. Enric Mas Nicolau (Spa) Movistar at 3:01
4. Richard Carapaz (Ecu) EF Education-EasyPost at 3:13
5. Mikel Landa Meana (Spa) Soudal Quick-Step at 3:20
6. Carlos Rodriguez Cano (Spa) INEOS Grenadiers at 4:12
7. Florian Lipowitz (Ger) Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe at 4:29
8. Felix Gall (Aust) Decathlon-AG2R-La Mondiale at 4:42
9. David Gaudu (Fra) Groupama-FDJ at 4:44
10. Adam Yates (GB) UAE Team Emirates at 5:17.
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