Irishman Eddie Dunbar won the 20th and penultimate stage of the Tour of Spain on Saturday at the top of Picon Blanco, where Slovenian Primoz Roglic, 3rd, consolidated his place as general leader on the eve of the finish in Madrid.
At the end of 172 km of a demanding race with no less than seven climbs (and 5,000 meters of positive elevation gain), the Jayco rider won by seven seconds ahead of the Spaniard Enric Mas, after attacking 2 km from the finish.
“I’m so proud. The last few metres were terribly difficult,” explained the rider who claimed his second victory in this Vuelta after his victory in the 11th stage at the Campus Tecnológico Cortizo Padron.
“I have experienced so many setbacks during my career that today I am fully enjoying this success,” continued the 28-year-old rider.
On Sunday, the final stage will take the form of a 24-kilometre time trial in the streets of Madrid where, barring any incident, Roglic, who now has a two-minute lead over his runner-up, Australian Ben O’Connor, should win the Vuelta for the fourth time.
The provisional podium is completed by Mas while the Frenchman David Gaudu, 7th on Saturday, kept his 5th place overall.
The stage was initially led by Spaniard Marc Soler, who took the lead over three difficulties before being caught 50 kilometres from the line by four pursuers.
— Sivakov’s attempt —
The peloton ended up catching these attackers on the penultimate climb of the day, the Puerto de Los Tornos, around thirty kilometres from the finish.
The place chosen by the Frenchman Pavel Sivakov to place a sharp attack until he dug a gap of one minute. The rider from the UAE team was caught in the last kilometers of the ascent of the terrible Picon Blanco, 8 kilometers at an average of 9% with a passage at 18%.
“I believed in it. I thought I had a chance of winning if it was anything to go by. But I lacked a bit of strength after three tough weeks of racing,” Sivakov explained.
It was not an easy day for Roglic’s Red Bulls. Spaniard Daniel Martinez and Austrian Patrick Gamper were forced to retire due to illness, while Russian Alexandr Vlasov quickly appeared in difficulty.
Food poisoning could have been the cause of these failures that could have destabilized the leader of the Vuelta. But the Slovenian was not put in danger by his rivals in the general classification.
bnl/tooth
