A crash at the start of the final kilometer paved the way for Alberto Dainese’s victory in the 19th stage of the Tour of Spain, with the Italian DSM Firmenich cyclist denying triumph to newly discovered sprinter Filippo Ganna.
When Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck) was expected to take his third victory in this edition, to distance himself from Remco Evenepoel in the battle for the points classification, the Australian was involved in a fall – he did not fall -, a given advantage of Dainese to add his second Grand Tour victory this season, having also won the fifth stage of the Giro.
The 25-year-old Italian overtook compatriot Filippo Ganna, an unlikely sprinter from INEOS, and the Dutch Marijn van den Berg (EF Education-EasyPost), in a sprint that saw the Portuguese Rui Oliveira (UAE Emirates) and André Carvalho respectively 11th and 12th, with the same 3:42.09 hours as the winner.
“I think I was very unlucky to lose my colleagues in the autumn, but at that moment I was in the perfect position, where I wanted to be. I knew there was a headwind, I let Ganna and the others sprint a little earlier and I waited for my moment. I’m super happy to have completed the great work” from his train, Dainese noted, happy to end his journey at DSM-firmenich – he’s going to Tudor next year – “on a good note”.
If the Italian felt “pressured to win” this Friday, the same cannot be said of Sepp Kuss, with the North American cyclist finally having an uneventful day, maintaining a 17-second lead over Dane Jonas Vingegaard and 1.08 minutes on the Slovenian Primoz Roglic. , his colleagues at Jumbo-Visma and the men who succeed him overall.
On the eve of the last decisive day of the 78th edition of the Spanish race, the anonymous Clément Davy (Groupama-FDJ), Paul Lapeira (AG2R Citroën), Mathis Le Berre (Arkéa Samsic) and Michal Schlegel (Caja Rural) ventured into an escape without a future in the first 10 kilometers of the 177.5 essentially flat kilometers between La Bañeza and Íscar.
It was not difficult to guess that the fugitives would not get far – they had a maximum lead of three minutes – as Kaden Groves had admitted before the start of the 19th lap that he was worried about defending the green’s lead sweater. , after the approach of Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step).
Thus, Alpecin-Deceuninck took over the chase, in the company of UAE Emirates, with the aim of bringing Juan Sebastián Molano to his second stage victory in this edition, always keeping the escapees within a safety margin, which was with 40 kilometers to go . only it was about 20 seconds.
Davy tried to distance himself from his fellow travelers, but would eventually catch up in the last 20 kilometers after taking the lead in the intermediate sprint, where Groves finished second and consolidated first place in the points classification.
After the breakaway was canceled, Samuele Battistella (Astana) started the adventure alone, in an impossible mission that would end even before the last 10,000 meters, in which the overall teams appeared at the front of the peloton to prevent their leaders from taking risks. .
But the uninteresting 19th stage – the Vuelta is in fact the most boring of the three major Tours – had an unfortunate emotional moment, when a crash took down half a dozen cyclists, mainly from DSM firmenich, and removed Groves from the discussion. .
With no organized trains, the approach to the finish line was an every man for himself, with Ganna once again exploring the sprinter aspect and narrowly losing to Dainese. “The boys were fantastic today. They went to the front of the peloton and we did a perfect job. Unfortunately I’m not a sprinter and I launched myself too early. I narrowly missed another sprint.”lamented the Italian time trial rider, who is trying to discover new paths in his career this season.
While Rui Oliveira and André Carvalho were close to the top 10 of the stage, Nelson Oliveira (Movistar) was 32nd, Rui Costa (Intermarché-Circus-Wanty) 88th and João Almeida (UAE Emirates) 98th, all with the same time as the winner.
Thus, Almeida retained ninth place overall, 10.20 minutes behind Kuss, in a ranking in which Rui Costa and Nelson Oliveira retained the same places: the first is 46th, at 2:09.57, and the second is 51st, at 2:14.12. .
Carvalho rose two places to 137th, 3:57:09 behind Kuss, while Rui Oliveira remains the red lantern of this 78th Vuelta, 4:16:53 behind the red jersey, who awaits the ultimate test of his leadership in the 207 on Saturday .8 kilometers between Manzanares El Real and Guadarrama, with ten third category mountains.
Source: DN
