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Pre-Vuelta a España favourite Primož Roglic slashed nearly two minutes off race leader Ben O’Connor’s margin on the summit finish of Puerto de Ancares.
The Slovenian attacked almost as soon as the double digit gradients of the final first category climb hit, swiftly distancing O’Connor (Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale), who had started the day with a lead of 3.16.
GC contenders were spread all over the mountainside as the Australian battled to keep himself in the red jersey eventually shipping nearly two minutes to leave his lead over the Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe rider at 1.21.
No one in the peloton had any hope of a stage win though as the break had been given a lead that ballooned up to 16 minutes. Out front, Canadian Michael Woods played his card cannily to take his first stage win at this year’s Vuelta a España.
The Israel-Premier Tech rider played it cool in the big breakaway of 23 riders watching at Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) shot off the front on every climb to claim the king of the mountains points.
He made his move with just over five kilometres to race on the double-digit gradients of the final climb.
Initially, Mauro Schmidt (Jayco-Alula) was able to go with him but the Swiss was soon distanced as the Canadian soloed to the line to claim his third career stage win at the Spanish grand tour.
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Woods joins a list of stage winners that includes Alberto Contador and Joaquim Rodríguez, who won atop the 1,657m climb in 2014 and 2012 Vueltas a España respectively.
How it happened
The day’s breakaway of 23 riders built up a gap of over 12 minutes after 100km of racing.
Among those in the front group was Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike), who started the day level with Adam Yates (UAE-Emirates) at the top of the king of the mountains competition.
Yates wasn’t present in the break, and despite the efforts of his team-mates Marc Soler and Jay Vine, van Aert was able to hoover up the maximum points on the race’s early climbs taking his KOM lead out to seven points over Yates.
The first 100km were covered at an average of 44kph, significantly faster than the race organiser’s fastest predicted speed of 42kph. Deacthlon-AG2R La Mondiale did much of the pace setting in the peloton throughout the day, as is custom for the race leader’s team on a day like today.
Out front Van Aert picked-up the maximum points at the day’s intermediate sprint to lengthen his more than 80 point lead over Kaden Groves (Alpecin Deceuninck) in the green jersey competition.
The break began to fragment, mostly under the pressure of van Aert’s near ceaseless attack, as the race came into its hilly conclusion. On the day’s penultimate climb of Puerto du Lumeras the UAE-Emirates trio of Marc Soler, Jay Vine and Brandon McNulty attempted to get one of them away but they were shut down.
In the end the Belgian was the first of the front runners to crest the second category climb to give himself a 13 point lead over Yates.
There was drama on the descent as McNulty slid off the road, going under the Armco, on the descent causing his team-mate Vine to also crash. McNulty was bloodied but able to climb back up the bank to the road before remounting to ride to the finish.
That left a group of five made up of van Aert, Soler, Michael Woods (Israel-Premier Tech), Sam Oomen (Lidle-Trek) and Mauro Schmidt (Jayco-Alula) coming into the final climb of Puerto de Ancares together to contest the stage win.
As the gradient kicked up into the double digits with 5km left to race on the final climb Schmidt and Woods pushed clear. Of their breakaway companions. Woods soon dropped Schmidt to push on alone, his gap steadily extending.
Behind those contesting the stage, Movistar set the pace in the peloton, clearly trying to set up an assault on the GC by Enric Mas, who started the day third in the overall competition.
Mas was able to follow when Roglič attacked initially but as the climb ground on he was distanced with two kilometres to go.
With four of the final five kilometres possessing gradients in the double digits the final first category climb of Puerto de Ancares was never well suited to O’Connor (Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale).
O’Connor, paced initially be a team-mate, was fighting hard to limit his losses not just to Roglič but to other GC rivals including Ricahrd Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost), Mas, Carlos Rodriguez (Ineos Grenadiers) and Mikel Landa (Soudal-Quick Step).
As Roglič crossed the finish line O’Connor still had 500m left to ride. He crossed the line 1.54 behind his biggest rival.
Results Vuelta a España 2024 stage 13: Lugo > Puerto de Ancares (176km)
1. Michael Woods (Can) Israel-Premier Tech, in 4:19:51
2. Mauro Schmidt (Sui) Jayco AlUla, +45s
3. Marc Soler (Esp) UAE Emirates, +1:11
4. Sam Oomen (Ned) Lidl-Trek, +1:25
5. Wout van Aert (Bel) Visma-Lease a Bike, +2:56
6. Gijs Leemreise (Ned) dsm-Firmenich Post NL, +3:33
7. Jose Feliz Parra (esp) Euipo Ken Pharma, +5:19
8. Mikel Bizkarra (Esp) Euskatel-Euskadi, +5:38
9. Luca Vergallito (Ita) Alpecin Deceuninck, +5:59
10. Mathis le Berre (Fra) Arkea-B&B hotels, +6:15
General classification after stage 13
1. Ben O’Connor (Aus) Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale, in 51:10:15
2. Primož Roglič (Slo) Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, +1:21
3. Enric Mas (Esp) Movistar, +3:01
4. Richard Carapaz (Ecu) EF Education-EasyPost, +3:13
5. Mikel Landa (Esp) Soudal Quick-Step, +3:20
6. Carlos Rodríguez (Esp) Ineos Grenadiers, +4:12
7. Florian Lipowitz (Ger) Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, +4:29
8. Felix Gall (Aut) Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale, +4:42
9. David Gaudu (Fra) Groupama-FDJ, +4:44
10. Adam Yates (GBr) UAE Team Emirates, +5:17
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