Marc Soler delivered a remarkable late thrust to secure the 16th stage of the Vuelta a España, in a compelling mountainous day that witnessed Primoz Roglic diminish Ben O’Connor’s overall advantage to a mere five seconds, while Wout van Aert had to exit the race due to a crash.
Soler, representing UAE Team Emirates, was the first rider to cross the top finish line at Lagos de Covadonga, in a record timing of four hours, 44 minutes, and 46 seconds. Expressing his emotions to Eurosport, Soler described his victory at his home event, the Vuelta, as extremely cherished.
With a breakaway group behind him, the Spaniard accelerated with only five kilometres of climbing remaining and proved to be invincible. The second and third spots went to Italy’s Filippo Zana from Jayco-Alula and Max Poole from DSM-Firmenich PostNL of Britain respectively.
Ireland’s Eddie Dunbar, who completed the stage in the 23rd spot, clung onto his 15th position in the overall standings, while Darren Rafferty stood 48th, which boosted him to the 71st spot in the cumulative scores.
Starting the day with a lag of one minute and three seconds behind Ben O’Connor, Primoz Roglic started to widen the gap with his primary competitor on the last unclassified climb of the day. For a moment, it seemed like Roglic from Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe would take over the red jersey, but O’Connor from Decathlon-AG2R la Mondiale managed to retain his slender lead of five seconds.
The rider with the green jersey, Wout van Aert, had to bow out of the contest following a substantial collision. The Belgian racer, who had secured victory in three stages of this year’s Vuelta, suffered a severe injury on his right knee after tumbling on a slick descent with over 50km more to go from Luanco.
Despite receiving medical assistance from the team personnel, Van Aert from Visma Lease-a-bike had to quit the race. The green jersey was subsequently passed to Kaden Groves from Alpecin-Deceuninck, while Jay Vine, another Australian from UAE Team Emirates, is currently leading the mountain classification.
The 17th stage scheduled for Wednesday provides a breather to the leading racers, featuring only two second category ascents across the 141.5km trajectory to Santander – Guardian.