Primoz Roglic just misses out on Ben O’Connor in the red, eternal yo-yo Marc Soler finally gets his just reward

Tour of Spain

12:57 Luanco – 17:30 Covadonga Lakes

The 16th stage has shaken up the Vuelta thoroughly. Wout van Aert crashed and had to abandon, Marc Soler triumphed from the breakaway of the day and Ben O’Connor remains the leader after a spectacular piece. On Lagos de Covadonga the red jersey got into trouble, but he keeps a handful of seconds on Primoz Roglic.

The 16th stage of the Vuelta in a nutshell

winner of the day
Among the escapees, the exceptionally resilient Marc Soler crowned his attacking Vuelta with the stage win on Lagos de Covadonga. His third in total, after also triumphing in the 2020 and 2022 editions. Talk about regularity. Soler’s recipe remains the same: seemingly suffer and drop, return for the umpteenth time and then blast away.
unlucky guy of the day
Who else but Wout van Aert? After his first early fall, he showed resilience by sneaking into the right breakaway. With another crash, his Vuelta was over. And that while he did a golden job for the polka dot jersey today and was already certain of green in Madrid. Fate decided otherwise and, biting back the heavy pain after his crash into the rock face, Van Aert disappeared from the race.
remarkable
Due to Primoz Roglic’s time penalty the day before the rest day, Ben O’Connor remains the narrow leader. His Slovenian challenger was penalized 20 seconds for following too closely behind the team car after a planned bike change. This meant that all classifications would have had a new leader after today by just 5 seconds.
morning
Without a dessert in Madrid, where we finished this year with a time trial, the last chance for the fast men follows in stage 17. In Santander the finale is as flat as you can find in Spain, in the middle there are still two hills. Kaden Groves and co. will not want to lose this chance.

Resilient Van Aert consolidates polka dot jersey, but leaves Vuelta after hard crash

Wout van Aert’s mission after the second rest day was clear: join the attack and hang his polka dot jersey more firmly around his shoulders.

In the first attacks of the day, the green jersey was indispensable. Until an early fall seemed to put an end to his plans. The damage seemed limited, but he kept quiet in the belly of the peloton.

Until the right flight formed and then suddenly a green man appeared. Van Aert played his nose for the right moment perfectly.

And there also seemed to be nothing wrong with the legs. With two big accelerations, to which competitor Jay Vine did not even bother to react, Van Aert again shot to a maximum loot of 20 out of 20 mountain points.

The first rain of this Vuelta caused a hectic descent of the penultimate climb. And unfortunately with a fatal outcome for Van Aert.

In front of him, Felix Engelhardt was the first to slide across the asphalt. Van Aert, in second position, could not go anywhere and hit the rock face hard. He immediately felt for his right leg, but still tried to get on his bike.

Van Aert couldn’t even pedal anymore and waited for the team car. With the heartbreaking image of a deathly pale and pain-biting Wout van Aert in the trunk of his team, we said goodbye to the man who colored this race.

Passionate Spaniards Soler and Mas on Lagos de Covadonga

But even without Van Aert the race continued. 12 leaders were allowed to fight for the stage victory on the traditional finish Lagos de Covadonga, once again a free pass for the favorites group.

Max Poole seemed the strongest attacker, but he hadn’t reckoned with Marc Soler. The Spanish yo-yo dropped about 5 times, but came back 6 times. And off went the driven Catalan to the stage win.

Among the favourites, Enric Mas was the most active of the group. There was no shortage of pricks, even on the penultimate climb of the day, but he also failed to really build up a gap.

However, all those attacks were too much for Ben O’Connor. Already 7 km from the top of Lagos de Covadonga the leader had to give in. Would he have to give up his red jersey today?

No, his fairytale is not over yet. O’Connor held on to his first place by 5 seconds on Primoz Roglic, who came in together with Mas.

Although O’Connor’s fairytale does not seem to end with him being number one in Madrid.

Watch the reaction of stage winner Soler:

O’Connor just holds on to his red jersey

With a lead of about 6 seconds, Ben O’Connor will remain the leader in the Tour of Spain after stage 16. He loses 57 seconds to Roglic and thus retains the red, thanks to the Slovenian’s time penalty after his bike change the day before yesterday.

Mas, Carapaz and Roglic finish just under 4 minutes behind stage winner Soler. The differences to Gaudu, Kuss and Landa remain limited to a few seconds.

Roglic has taken a bit of a lead on Mas and Carapaz in the downhill stretch towards the finish. Gaudu is not too far behind.

O’Connor still has 2 kilometers to go, with his red jersey hanging on by a thread. The leader is already rolling up Sivakov, who just dropped him.

Marc Soler does it after all! After three third places he wins a stage

Prize for Marc Soler and UAE!

Lost, fight back and then over. Marc Soler’s recipe worked again today, good for his third stage win ever in the Vuelta. Without a doubt the most beautiful with this mythical mountain top finish at the lakes of Covadonga.

There is no need to look back, Marc. Poole and Zana arrive too late, Soler is on his way to his stage victory.

Last kilometer before Soler

Marc Soler can already see the red rag of the last kilometer between the raindrops. The stage victory seems to go to the exceptionally resilient Catalan.

Roglic leads the quartet on the descents, tricky on these slippery roads. O’Connor holds on to his red jersey by a handful of seconds, but soon it’s uphill again.

Mas tries again, but Roglic and co stay on the wheel

But But!

Gaudu and Carapaz are the only ones who initially follow the new attack of the dogged Mas. At his own pace, Roglic recovers again. He limits himself to following for the time being.

O’Connor sees red slipping away

50 seconds on Roglic, Ben O’Connor has almost virtually lost his red jersey. Another 15 seconds or so and it’s time.

Landa is the next to fall for the favorites. Lecerf, who was still on the attack, is waiting for him to set the pace on one of the better-running sections.

With snot on his nose, Soler seems to be on his way to victory solo.

Soler alone

Unbelievable, but Marc Soler seems to be on his way to a stage win. Poole and Zana can’t keep up with his umpteenth crash.

But with Carapaz!

Roglic is at the back of the group, the signal for Mas to blast away. Only Carapaz initially responds, but Roglic comes up.

The favorites are back to 6, Landa has been caught. O’Connor continues to defend himself at 20 seconds from the Roglic group, where Kuss has a difficult moment.