Marc Soler found a superb late surge to win stage 16 of the Vuelta a España, on a dramatic day in the mountains which saw Primoz Roglic cut Ben O’Connor’s overall lead to just five seconds as Wout van Aert crashed out of the race.
Soler (UAE Team Emirates) was first to reach the summit finish at Lagos de Covadonga, in a time of four hours, 44 minutes and 46 seconds. “To win at home in the Vuelta is very special,” Soler told Eurosport.
The Spaniard burst clear of a breakaway group with five kilometres of climbing to go and proved unstoppable. Italy’s Filippo Zana (Jayco-Alula) and Britain’s Max Poole (DSM-Firmenich PostNL) came home in second and third place respectively.
Ireland’s Eddie Dunbar finished the stage in 23rd, seeing him hold on to 15th in the general ranking, while Darren Rafferty was 48th, bringing him up to 71st overall.
Primoz Roglic, who trailed Ben O’Connor by 1 minute 3 seconds at the start of the day, began to build a lead over his title rival on the uncategorised final climb. At one stage, it looked as though Roglic (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) would take the red jersey, but O’Connor (Decathlon-AG2R la Mondiale) dug in to keep the overall lead by just five seconds.
The green jersey wearer, Wout van Aert, was forced to abandon the race after a heavy crash. The Belgian rider, winner of three stages of this year’s Vuelta, injured his right knee after falling on a slippery descent with more than 50km of the stage from Luanco still to race.
Van Aert (Visma Lease-a-bike) received treatment from team medics but was unable to continue. The green jersey now goes to Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck), while fellow Australian Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates) leads the mountain classification.
Wednesday’s 17th stage offers some respite for the race leaders with just two category two climbs along the 141.5km route to Santander. – Guardian
