The Vuelta’s first mountain top finish was very much a “wait and see” stage. Wait and see if the breakaway will reach the base of the final climb to contest the stage. Wait and see which GC contenders would perform. Wait and see who would win the stage, and what the new general classification would look like.

After plenty of waiting, we saw an impenetrable team performance by Burgos-BH in the breakaway that led to King of the Mountains jersey holder Ángel Madrazo winning the stage. Madrazo’s teammate, Jetse Bol, secured second while Jose Herrada (Cofidis) succumbed to 3rd after doing the majority of the pace setting. In the peloton behind, it was Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana) who stormed away from the likes of Movistar’s Alejandro Valverde and Primoz Roglic (Jumbo Visma) to reclaim the leader’s jersey as Sunweb’s Nico Roche suffered behind. Continue reading →