2021 season, Grand Tours, Vuelta a España

Vuelta a Espana 2021 : Stage 14 – Bedhead Bardet gets frisky for (B)DSM

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As the Vuelta a Espana headed into the mountains before Monday’s rest day, Stage 14 proved to be one of the dullest days of mountain racing that I have witnessed in some time. Starting with 75km to go, I found myself pondering why I’d agreed to watch this Vuelta again. Eventually, Romain ‘Bedhead’ Bardet reminded why we all turn on the telly and watch these men pedal their cranks. Positioning himself for success in the day’s breakaway, the Team (B)DSM rider kept his powder dry until the final climb, spanking the bibs off of all others with an attack with 6km to go. Left in his wake of dominance, Jesus Herrada of the submissive Cofidis Team, finished second on the day. The cruelty of Herrada is nothing to be forgotten as he rudely outsprinted Alpecin’s Jay Vine, who had bravely recovered after crashing into a team car.

In the GC group behind, Primoz Roglic‘s Jumbo Bees maintained a stranglehold on the peloton, ensuring that no battle worth watching would ever be started. Other than Miguel Angel Lopez (Movistar) gaining a measly five seconds on the likes of Roglic, his own teammate Enric Mas, and Ineos’s Egan Bernal, the fight for the red jersey remains unchanged, with Wanty’s Odd Christian Eiking donning it again for Stage 15.

A kinky Bedhead experience

I won’t claim to know why we call Romain Bardet ‘Bedhead’ – probably because his hair is always disheveled in some way [That’s exactly why – ed]. I do love the man dearly, though, and his dominance on today’s mountain top finish was a spectacular showing. As our dear friend Midge said: I miss Romain fighting for the GC, but I sure do love his hunting for stage wins and the polka dot jersey.

We shall whisper it quietly now, shan’t we? BDSM’s 2021 Vuelta experience is beginning to remind me a fair bit of the team’s 2020 Tour de France. They aren’t winning in the same style or with the same flare that they did in 2020, but three stage wins for a team of their stature is something to celebrate. Vamos, BDSM!

Romain is as French as they come. His veins are probably filled with bits of stale baguette and croissants if I had to guess. Despite this, it really is shocking to think that today’s win is his FIRST EVER WorldTour victory outside of the borders of his homeland and just his SECOND EVER victory outside of France. Come to the US and win the Joe Martin Stage Race next year, will ya?

Hero of the Day: Jay Vine

No one knew Jay Vine’s name prior to today. [We did – ed] At least I didn’t. Maybe those of you who have consistently been watching this race knew, but he’s new to me! ANYWAY. . . Jay wins our Hero of the Day competition today. Whilst looking strong in the breakaway heading into the finale, Jay collided with a team car while receiving a bottle on a descent and hit the deck in high-speed, painful fashion. After several moments on the ground, the young man remounted his bike AND made it back into the lead group by the time they reached the final ascent.

With his kit terribly scraped up and race numbers fluttering about in the wind as they clung to his jersey by the thinnest of strings, Jay kept fighting on. He was the first of Bardet’s distanced breakaway companions to put in a serious chase toward the Frenchman, ultimately being joined by Cofidis’ Herrada.

I’ll be blunt: 2nd place on the stage AND the combativity award should have been granted to Jay Vine. He was cruelly outsprinted at the line by Cofidis. . . those bunch of wheel-sucking vampires! The combativity award was given to Dani Navarro, who crashed on the descent because he forgot to turn. . . that tells you all you need to know about that. [The combativity judges definitely have some explaining to do – ed]

The snooze of the GC

Look, I don’t really even want to talk about the favorites today. All of them did diddly squat and do not deserve a mention in this glorious report. I suppose I’ll suck it up and let some wiser people than I tell you about it, however.

[Surely, Tom, you remember Sky / Ineos doing this in every Tour de France since 2012 – ed]

As for Cofidis, dear Reader, they, in fact, did not regret it. Cofidis shut their own attack down by being Cofidis.

We should actually give it up to Movistar. . . they have two of their intended GC riders at the front of affairs today. How are they pulling off such wizardry?

Of course, they still seem quite outmatched, both in terms of talent and tactics. Gaining 5 seconds isn’t very helpful in the long run of things, I imagine.

Stage 15 …

So do we think we’ll get a GC battle on this bad boy?

The Last Word

All the results

Stage results 

1 Romain Bardet (Team BDSM) 4:20:36

2 Jesus Herrada (Cofidis) +0:44

3 Jay Vine (Alpecin-Fenix) +0:44

4 Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers) +1:12

5 Clément Champoussin (AG2R Citroën Team) +1:14

GC Top 10 

1 Odd Christian Eiking (Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert) 55:03:17

2 Guillaume Martin (Cofidis) +0:54

3 Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) +1:36

4 Enric Mas (Movistar Team) +2:11

5 Miguel Angel Lopez (Movistar Team) +3:04

6 Jack Haig (Bahrain-Victorious) +3:35

7 Egan Bernal (INEOS Grenadiers) +4:21

8 Adam Yates (INEOS Grenadiers) +4:49

9 Sepp Kuss (Jumbo-Visma) +4:59

10 Felix Grossschartner (BORA-hansgrohe) +5:31

All the jerseys

Leader’s jersey : Odd Christian Eiking (Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert Matériaux)

Points jersey : Fabio Jakobsen (Deceuninck-Quick Step)

King of the Mountains: Romain Bardet (Team BDSM)

Best young rider : Egan Bernal (INEOS Grenadiers)

For full race results, go to CyclingNews

Official Vuelta website is here 

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