UAE strikes again in the Vuelta: Almeida wins after nice battle on the Angliru, but can’t shake Vingegaard

On Thursday, UAE Emirates-XRG struck again in the Tour of Spain, with Juan Ayuso claiming his second victory of the Vuelta. Behind them, the GC contenders had remained quiet, but only for what was to come the next day. On Friday, we headed for the Angliru, a mountain that many riders fear.

The approach to the mountains was supposed to be flat, but the opening phase was anything but calm. We even saw echelons from the start, with Felix Gall (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) falling behind. After everything came back together, a large breakaway group rode away.

Initially, 24 riders had escaped. Among them were Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek), Dutchmen Tim van Dijke (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) and Huub Artz (Intermarché-Wanty), Antonio Tiberi and his Bahrain Victorious teammate Roman Ermakov, Bob Jungels (INEOS Grenadiers), Ethan Vernon (Israel-Premier Tech), and Jonas Gregaard (Lotto). Meanwhile, Ben O'Connor, the Jayco AlUla rider who crashed in stage ten, had dropped out.

Who else was riding at the front? Jefferson Cepeda, Michel Hessmann (both Movistar), Gianmarco Garofoli (Soudal Quick-Step), Edward Planckaert (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Nickolas Zukowsky, David González (Q36.5), Nicolas Vinokurov (XDS Astana), Clément Braz Alfonso, Rémi Cavagna (both Groupama-FDJ), Guillerom Thomas Silva, Joel Nicolau (both Caja Rural), Anders Foldager (Jayco AlUla), Léandre Lozouet, Pierre Thierry (both Arkéa-B&B Hotels), Kamiel Bonneu (Intermarché-Wanty), and José Luis Faura (Burgos Burpellet BH). Ivo Oliveira (UAE Emirates-XRG) also made the crossing on his own on his birthday, so there were 25 riders in total.

Behind them, the peloton maintained control. The pack kept the lead of the 25 riders just under three minutes, while not much else happened. It would be a prelude to the fireworks later in the day, as we would also have the tough Alto de la Mozqueta (6.4 kilometers at 8.2%) and the Alto del Cordal (5.5 kilometers at 8.8%) before the Angliru.

At the start of the first of those two climbs, the leading group splintered. Cavagna set a fast pace, leaving the rear door open at the front. The pace also increased in the peloton thanks to the Q36.5 team, who took over the lead from Visma | Lease a Bike. At the front, Jungels accelerated.

We reached the top with five riders in front: Cepeda, Garofoli, Jungels, Tiberi, and Vinokourov had broken away from the other breakaway riders. Pedersen was not far behind at the top and quickly caught up with the five on the descent. Artz was not far behind, while a larger group of chasers had gathered behind the Dutchman.

Junior Lecerf then fell back into the peloton, while Tiberi had a flat tire at the front. The Italian was quickly able to continue and joined Artz in pursuit of the five remaining riders at the front. The Tiberi-Artz duo was almost knocked over by a dog that had run onto the course and pulled a chair along with it. That was a close call!

Pedersen let go after winning the intermediate sprint, while the Alto del Cordal loomed soon after. Visma | Lease a Bike took the lead on that climb, after which we quickly saw Juan Ayuso drop back. At the front, only Cepeda, Jungels, and Vinokurov remained after Garofoli dropped back, while Tiberi had left Artz behind in chase at the head of the race. Meanwhile, Pablo Castrillo (Movistar) had dropped out for reasons that were unclear at the time.

The trio reached the top with a small minute's lead on Tiberi. At the same time, the peloton, where UAE Emirates-XRG had picked up the pace considerably, was another two minutes behind the Italian. In between were numerous dropped breakaway riders. Tiberi, after his earlier flat tire, also crashed, which meant his chase would come to an end.

Before we knew it, the Angliru was already looming. The pace had been high all day, which meant we quickly reached the foot of the final climb. Cepeda, Jungels, and Vinokurov started there with a 2:30-minute lead, but were briefly held up by another protest. After about thirty seconds, they were able to continue on their way.

The peloton was not delayed any further, so the race continued at full speed. At the front, Cepeda had to let go, while the pack thinned out rapidly due to Jay Vine's high pace. Egan Bernal (INEOS Grenadiers) had to let go very early on, as did Torstein Træen (Bahrain Victorious). After a decisive turn at the front by the Australian UAE domestique, it was Felix Grossschartner's turn.

With 6.5 kilometers to go, Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek), Giulio Pellizzari (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe), and Matteo Jorgenson (Visma | Lease a Bike) also found the pace too fast. Just before that, Jungels had left his breakaway companion Vinokurov behind, but the group of favorites had already closed the gap to half a minute.

On the steepest sections, with gradients of just over 20 percent (!), a real man-to-man battle was fought. Gall had to let go, followed by Tom Pidcock (Q36.5) and Matthew Riccitello (Israel-Premier Tech). With six kilometers to go, after Grossschartner dropped out, we were left with four men: Almeida, Vingegaard, teammate Sepp Kuss, and Jai Hindley on behalf of Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe.

With 5.5 kilometers to go, it was also the end of the road for the brave Jungels. The Luxembourger saw the four riders race past, with Almeida in the lead. A kilometer further on, it was too fast for both Kuss and Hindley, so we had the two big favorites of this Vuelta together in the lead.

Vingegaard stayed on the wheel of his Portuguese rival for a long time. However, the Danish leader of Visma | Lease a Bike was clinging to Almeida's wheel and did not seem to be breaking away, despite the Portuguese rider setting a grueling pace throughout the entire steep section of the Angliru. Behind the pair, Kuss and Hindley were the first chasers, while behind them, Gall, Riccitello, and Pellizzari saw that Pidcock was just unable to follow them.

Gall then rode away from Pellizzari and Riccitello, who were fighting an exciting battle for the white jersey. At the front, there seemed to be no difference between Vingegaard and Almeida. Despite a final burst of energy, the Portuguese rider took the Dane with him up the hill, but who would take the stage victory?

Almeida rode to the finish in the lead, with Vingegaard seemingly making no real attempt to overtake the Portuguese rider. UAE thus won another stage in this Vuelta, their sixth in this Tour of Spain.