Primož Roglič dominated Stage 13 of the 2024 Vuelta a España, showcasing peak form by crushing Enric Mas and Mikel Landa on the Puerto de Ancares and solidifying his status as the top contender for the GC win.
Puerto de Ancares (5.48 km, 11.51%) was a perfect opportunity for the strongest climbers to create bigger gaps on the steep ramps that offered little benefit of drafting. With a strong breakaway up the road, the GC riders did not contest the bonus seconds. The breakaway was load with UAE Emirates trio Marc Soler, Jay Vine and Brandon McNulty, three-time stage winner in the 2024 La Vuelta Wout van Aert, steep ramp specialist Michael Woods, “Narwhal of Ruurlo” Gijs Leemreize, Sam Oomen, and Mauro Schmid, were among the stronger riders in the breakaway that gained a 17-minute lead as there were no GC threats in the front group.
With Brandon McNulty and Jay Vine crashing on the final descent and Marc Soler expending his energy on attacks, Woods’ chances increased significantly against the heavier Van Aert and Schmid, who might be very strong riders but were at a disadvantage on the steep Ancares ramps that favored pure w/kg monsters like Woods. The Canadian opened a gap early and won his third La Vuelta stage of his career.
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The GC group started the climb much later, with Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe doing a huge leadout for Primož Roglič. Only Enric Mas and Mikel Landa could follow when the Slovenian hit the wind, with Landa getting distanced 9 minutes before the finish, while Mas tried to follow longer but completely blew up later.
Roglič is in peak form, and on Puerto de Ancares, he pushed 6.87 ᵉW/kg for 19:13 min. Landa was the second fastest from the GC group with 6.63 ᵉW/kg and 35 seconds lost to the Slovenian. The pre-stage favorite Mas was only the 8th fastest rider, with 6.48 ᵉW/kg, as he dug too deep trying to challenge Roglič. His compatriot Carlos Rodriguez set his own tempo and was 14 seconds faster than the Movistar leader, with 6.6 ᵉW/kg for 19:57 min. Ben O’Connor lost almost two minutes to Roglič, pushing 6.18 ᵉW/kg and remained the race leader. However, that was his usual climbing level in this La Vuelta, as he has been producing aSLP (adjusted sea level power) scores of 551, 568, 580, and 584 on the climbs, with his best performance today being 585.
La Vuelta is Roglič’ race, as he has produced most of his best road race climbing performances in the Spanish Grand Tour. In the last two mountain GC days, he pushed 7.78 ᵉW/kg for 7:50 min (Puerto Cruxeiras) and 7.23 ᵉW/kg for 19:13 min (Puerto de Ancares) when adjusted for sea level. Roglič’ best pure climbing performance was in the 2023 La Vuelta when he challenged his then-teammates Jonas Vingegaard and Sepp Kuss, pushing SLP of 7.04 ᵉW/kg for 26:28 min on the steep section of Angliru, while for the full climb, he averaged SLP 6.65 ᵉW/kg for 41:24 min.
Love to see an attacking Roglic
Great analysis – thank you
I miss the all time perofmances dots for Vinge, Remco and Landa at the mythical pogi all time performance stage included in the general season dots. Why we don’t see these but we do see ulissi etc.
One (best) dot per climb
I’d be interested as to how the peak Chris Froome is calculated. As a data point Wiggins did 463w for 1 hour for the final TT in 2012 and 470 for 50 min at the Olympics (admittedly these are claims in a book released when he was still competitive so he could have been messing with the opposition, but he has said similar number as a pundit). Which if he was 70kg (conservative) puts him well above the top line.
Obviously both efforts were when fresh but even so Froome was only a few % behind so would have been in the same sort of power range given he is only slightly smaller.
With those numbers I can not comprehend why he could not follow in the Tour. He should have been at least at the level of Jonas. He is gonna cook in the Giro 25 and than lets hope for the best at the Tour.