Primož Roglič won his 14th Vuelta a España stage with a powerful performance on the Cazorla climb in the hot Jaén province, in the final metres out sprinting Enric Mas.
After gifting more than 6 minutes on Stage 6 to Ben O’Connor, this was the first mountain top finish for Primož Roglič and Red Bull Bora-Hansgrohe to test the Australian and his teammates’ legs. The stage finished up the irregular Sierra de Cazorla (4.8 km, 7.2%) climb, which suited Roglič well with punchy steep sections. It was a relatively easy day with Rein Taaramäe spending 3,040 kilojoules for 3:28h at 13.11 kj/kg/h.
Oier Lazkano, Harold Tejada, and Luca Vergallito had a good chance to win from the breakaway on this hot day, but unfortunately for them, Israel-Premier Tech was pacing hard for their strong climbing trio: George Bennett, Michael Woods, and Matthew Riccitello, none of whom finished in the top 10. A big crash at the start of the climb involved riders like Joao Almeida, Aleksandr Vlasov and Sepp Kuss, who were held back by it. Almeida lost almost 5 minutes and may have COVID-19, according to Eurosport Portugal.
Red Bull went all out with their leadout at the bottom of Cazorla. After Daniel Martinez pulled off, Primož Roglič accelerated and reduced the group. The tempo was uneven as Roglič had no teammates, but his attacks cracked Ben O’Connor, who tried to respond to most of the accelerations in the leading group. In the final part of the climb, O’Connor cracked and needed to sit in the draft of his teammate Felix Gall. Only Enric Mas could challenge the Slovenian. Although Mas was ahead of Roglič in the final meters of the climb, he could not win the sprint against the punchy rider.
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Roglič delivered a strong performance, averaging 7.22 ᵉW/kg for 11:07 minutes on the Cazorla climb. His average speed was 26.18 km/h on an irregular 7.2% gradient. With having more drafting, Enric Mas pushed 0.21 ᵉW/kg less than Roglič. Ben O’Connor lost 46 seconds to the Slovenian, averaging 6.51 ᵉW/kg. However, Stage 9 will be much tougher, featuring three major climbs in the Granada province.
And what on Earth has happened to Thymen Arensman? I feel sorry for the dude.