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Whereas Michael Woods (Israel-Premier Tech) might not win typically, when he does, he wins huge. As we speak was no completely different on the Vuelta a España as he launched away from the remnants of the day’s breakaway 4.8km from the road to beat the Puerto de Ancares summit end solo on stage 13.
Thriving on the class 1 climb’s steepest gradients, the Canadian champion Woods shortly dispatched the likes of Mauro Schmid (Jayco AlUla) and Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) as soon as the 5 remaining from a 23-strong break hit the ultimate climb’s hardest level, profitable with an eventual margin of 44 seconds.
This was solely the 37-year-old Woods’ second win of the 12 months after the nationwide street title and his third on the Vuelta, including to triumphs from 2018 and 2020.
Schmid climbed to second up the sharp inclines, whereas Marc Soler (UAE Crew Emirates) managed third on one other entertaining day trip in entrance, because the breakaway gained for the fourth day working on the Vuelta.
“I’m on cloud 9 proper now. My huge aim was to win a race with this jersey, I’ve had a tricky season with sickness and I’ve had a tricky race by way of dangerous lack with mechanicals and crashes in mistimed moments. This can be a huge second of catharsis, an enormous aid,” mentioned Woods of his stage win.
“I used to be fortunate to get within the break with Dylan [Teuns] and Riley Sheehan, who did an important job of getting me in. I used to be a bit remoted once we had Jay [Vine], Brandon [McNulty] and Marc [Soler] attacking me however I simply needed to preserve preventing with them after which once they crashed, that basically scared me and I hope they’re OK however then I knew I used to be the man to beat on that climb.”
The race for total victory was unfolding additional down the mountain after the break was allowed once more to recover from 10 minutes forward, and after Movistar had paced for a lot of the strategy to the ultimate climb, it was Pink Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe who got here to the fore within the 7.5km.
Primož Roglič put his males to work with every climbing domestique emptying himself to strive put race chief Ben O’Connor (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) below severe strain, with the Australian quickly feeling it and dropping because the Slovenian started to energy away with Enric Mas (Movistar) and Sepp Kuss (Visma-Lease a Bike).
However the three-time Vuelta champion Roglič confirmed simply why he’s been so profitable in Spain all through his profession, relishing the uneven, brutally steep gradients upwards of 15%, dropping all of his rivals 2.3km from the summit and powering dwelling to realize 1:55 on O’Connor.
The Australian fought valiantly to defend crimson and efficiently stayed in command of the jersey heading into stage 14, nonetheless, Roglič is coming and he’s now effectively inside hanging distance, 1:21 down, of wrestling again the lead on the subsequent alternative.
Extra to come back …
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