Three-time Vuelta a España winner Primož Roglič roared back into the red jersey of race leader on Tuesday, winning an uphill sprint to the line in Laguardia and taking over at the top of the general classification.
The Slovenian Jumbo-Visma rider showed he has fully recovered from the injury which took him out of the Tour de France, beating former world champion Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo), Enric Mas (Movistar) plus the rest of a whittled-down main bunch.
Irishman Sam Bennett had targeted the day’s intermediate sprint in order to pad his lead in the green jersey competition but ran into a problem. Three riders out of the day’s breakaway were still out front at the intermediate sprint and in the sprint for fourth Pedersen pipped Bennett to the line.
The Carrick-on-Suir rider stopped immediately afterwards with a mechanical issue, and explained after the stage that he had believed he had been sprinting with a damaged wheel. He said he and the team also didn’t realise the intermediate sprint had been about to start and that he was badly positioned as a result.
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[ Sam Bennett secures back-to-back Vuelta a España stage winsOpens in new window ]
[ Sam Bennett ready to seize more opportunities as Vuelta restarts in SpainOpens in new window ]
“We didn’t have markings to say how long it was to go [to the sprint] and then all of a sudden we were in the middle of the bunch and we saw the banner across the road. I think we didn’t even get out until 150 or 200 [metres] to go and it was just me trying to get through the gaps.
“Somebody hit my back wheel — a bit of panic set in trying to get out of the group, somebody clipped it or something like that. Then I had to get a wheel change.”
Bennett has been sprinting more strongly than Pedersen in the race, beating the Dane to victories on stages two and three, but was clearly on the back foot due to being so far back in the bunch before the intermediate sprint and also having that mechanical issue.
He lost time getting a new wheel after the sprint and sat up immediately afterwards, coasting into the finish. While Pedersen went on to take second on the stage and add more points to his tally, Bennett confirmed he had decided not to try to contest what was a hilly finale.
“We only wanted the intermediate. Let Pedersen take the stage if he wanted, that didn’t matter. Just intermediate today, limit the losses.”
On top form, Bennett is normally good on short, steep finishes but despite his two stage wins, he is still building his climbing form after injury problems last year. He is sprinting very well but is not yet at 100 per cent of aerobic fitness.
His Bora-Hansgrohe team rode strongly to limit the gains of a six-man breakaway group, with Ryan Mullen riding very well in the chase. The coming days have plenty of climbs and with the intermediate sprints coming after a number of uphills on those stages, Bennett may well bide his time until stage 11.
That’s the next likely opportunity for a bunch sprint, with stages 13, 16, 19 and 21 also potentially ending up that way.
He still holds the green jersey but what was a 37-point advantage over Pedersen before the stage has been reduced to a nine-point lead.
Roglic, meanwhile, has given a clear signal to his rivals that he is ready to chase a fourth Vuelta title. He is now 13 seconds ahead of team-mate Sepp Kuss, and 26 clear of Ethan Hayter (Ineos Grenadiers), with the latter’s team-mates Pavel Sivakov and Tao Geoghegan Hart also on the same deficit. The other race contenders are further back again.
“It is really just the beginning of the Vuelta,” he said, “but I always say it is better to be some seconds in front rather than behind.
“It was already a hard pace all day, it was a superfast stage. In the final there was an opportunity to fight for the stage win. I had the legs and I gave it a go.”
The race continues on Wednesday with a lumpy 187.2km race from Irún to Bilbao. This contains five categorised climbs, making it difficult for Pedersen to further close the gap to Bennett.
