Saturday was both the 81st Vuelta a España‘s queen stage and penultimate stage. On a wild day, red jersey Enric Mas’s rivals couldn’t budge him, and he has one hand on the trophy. Mikel Landa turned back the clock and earned his first Grand Tour stage victory since 2017 and his first win since 2021. Another of the day’s developments was Sepp Kuss rocketing up the GC from 11th to 5th.
A Massive Day For Mas
Mas first appeared on the Vuelta podium as runner-up to Simon Yates in 2018. He has also been second to Primož Roglič and Remco Evenepoel and third to Roglič. Mas winning the Vuelta would be on par with Yates finishing unfinished business with the Giro d’Italia last season.
Friday was stalemate. Roglič couldn’t dent the 1:37 Mas had over him. Felix Gall was still one and a half minutes behind Roglič. Oscar Onley increased his white jersey lead over Jakob Omrzel by six seconds to 1:03.
Saturday’s queen stage began with a Cat. 3 amuse bouche before the gluttony of three Cat. 1 ascents of eight percent average, Puerto de El Purche twice in succession. The only HC-rated climb of the race, Collado del Alguacil, would do the final sorting on 8.4 km of 9.8 percent roads.
It was last-chance-saloon for dozens of the riders, and thus, a good-sized breakaway and an enormous chase formed. By the foot of Puerto de El Purche I, Wout Van Aert and 13 others, six of whom were Uno-X, were 3:30 ahead of a 50-strong chase and 9:00 ahead of the GC heavy hitters. Mountains classification leader Santiago Buitrago was in the giant chase group, and he started to worry about all those KOM points dangling in front of Van Aert, who started the day 38 points in arrears. He wanted to be the first Colombian to win the Vuelta dots since Félix Cárdenas in 2004.
In the peloton, Kuss attacked in search of getting back in the top-10 and even defending his 11th from Guillaume Martin in the gargantuan chase. Inspired, fourth-place Richard Carapaz made his own move, linking up with Kuss. Gall’s Decathlon-CMA-CGM yanked the peloton. Kuss and Carapaz came to heel but both Onley and Omrzel lost contact on the descent.
Again, Kuss launched himself up the road on Puerto de El Purche II. With Van Aert scoring maximum points at the top, Buitrago started to sweat. Carapaz attacked near the top. Gall sewed up the rent in the fabric.
Having tried all day, Landa finally joined the breakaway, one still Uno-X powered. Puerto de El Duque was even steeper than El Purche. Ramses Debruyne, like Landa, finally bridged and attacked. Landa and Tobias Halland Johannessen latched on. Carapaz had a teammate to toil for him. The Ecuadorian tried attack after attack but he couldn’t dislodge Gall. With Landa, Debruyne and Johannessen gobbling up the KOM points, Buitrago could finally relax.
An HC to Conclude the GC
The Landa trio had useful buffers over its chasers as Collado del Alguacil began. Landa dashed away. Kuss began to lose momentum. Gall bounced clear, Mas first coming over with ease before dropping back and losing 17 seconds.
Landa, in his last year with Soudal-QuickStep, was emotional at the line. Roglič saved his second place.
Sunday is the procession into Grenada for the final sprinters’ showdown.
81st Vuelta a España, Stage 20
1) Mikel Landa (Spain/Soudal-QuickStep) 5:00:54
2) Tobias Halland Johannessen (Norway/Uno-X) +0:14
3) Ramses Debruyne (Belglium/Alpecin-Premier Tech) +0:23
81st Vuelta a España GC
1) Enric Mas (Spain/Movistar) 70:56:03
2) Primož Roglič (Slovenia/Red Bull) +2:14
3) Felix Gall (Austria/Decathlon-CMA-CGM) +2:44