Vuelta a España stage 16: Jonas Vingegaard attacks to win solo

Jonas Vingegaard won stage 16 of the Vuelta a España in dramatic style, as the Danish rider attacked the race lead of his Jumbo-Visma teammate, Sepp Kuss.

The Tour de France champion darted away from everybody on the steep final climb to Bejes, winning the stage at a canter and taking back an enormous amount of time in the GC.

Behind Vingegaard, Finn Fisher-Black (UAE Team Emirates) and Wout Poels (Bahrain-Victorious) impressed to finish second and third, respectively. But the nearest GC challenger was Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) in fifth, who led home Enric Mas (Movistar), Aleksandr Vlasov (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma) over the line, conceding 1:01 to the Dane.

As for race leader Kuss, he finished a further four seconds down and now only holds a slender 29-second advantage over Vingegaard, who has moved above Roglič into second place.

“I’m just happy to win today," said Vingegaard, paying tribute to his teammate Nathan van Hooydonck, who suffered a car accident that morning. "We had some terrible news this morning and I wanted to win for my best friend today and luckily now there is good news about it, about his condition so that’s a big relief for me, for the team and I hope he will recover soon.

As for the red jersey and the general classification situation: "I don't know. Now I just want to enjoy this moment and not think about it."

Earlier in the stage, the fight for the breakaway had been immense for the first hour and a half, with the average speed almost reaching 50km/h. An initial 10-man move went up the road and for a long time looked as though it would stick, but Ineos Grenadiers were determined not to miss out and spent the best part of 25km in pursuit.

As a result, the race reformulated with a little under 80km to ride, and the battle began once again. The next serious move to go would prove decisive, creating a six-rider breakaway that contained green jersey holder, Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck). However, their hopes were dampened when it soon became clear that Jumbo-Visma wanted to fight for the stage victory.

In turn, the gap to the breakaway was never allowed to rise above a minute and a half, resulting in the peloton duking it out for stage honours on the steep final climb in Bejes.

Ineos Grenadiers forced into a lengthy chase of the breakaway

Starting off from Liencres Playa under the darkened skies of Cantabria, the peloton knew that it was in for a wet and miserable day in the saddle, with a 95% chance of rain forecast for much of the afternoon. The conditions did not deter the early attackers, who sensed an opportunity for a breakaway victory.

At the forefront of the early moves was Groves, who no doubt had eyes on the intermediate sprint in Unquera to extend his lead in the green jersey points classification. The first 10km were undulating and featured twisting roads, which led to more than an air of trepidation falling over the peloton given the intense downpour, and sizeable splits opening up in the bunch as they negotiated a technical descent.

An initial move of 10 riders contained many strong names such as Romain Grégoire (Groupama-FDJ), Romain Bardet (dsm-firmenich) and stage 3 winner, Andreas Kron (Lotto Dstny).

This sounded alarm bells behind and Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) was amongst those interested in mounting a chase, but Jumbo-Visma soon took up the responsibility of policing proceedings. The team of the red jersey were seemingly happy enough with the ten riders up the road, none of whom sat within 50 minutes of the race lead.

© Sprint Cycling Agency

Ineos Grenadiers paid the price for falling asleep as the first move of the day went up the road

Ineos Grenadiers were well aware that they may have missed their chance, but their pacing at the front of the peloton was routinely disrupted by Jumbo-Visma and Alpecin-Deceuninck, two teams who were content with the makeup of the ten-man breakaway.

After 15km, the gap had swelled to 35 seconds and the next few kilometres were going to be pivotal to the look of the stage, leading to Filippo Ganna and Intermarché-Circus-Wanty joining forces to lead the peloton. Both teams worked tirelessly to reduce the deficit to 25 seconds, and Ineos Grenadiers’ Hail Mary was to launch Jonathan Castroviejo on an attack, but this proved futile.

The pace was frenzied and it was desperate times for the British squad, as the gap between the peloton and the breakaway began to widen once again. Geraint Thomas and Omar Fraile were admirable in their efforts at the front of the peloton and all eyes were on who would blink first: the breakaway - frustrated by their inability to snap the elastic - or Ineos Grenadiers?

Bardet, Grégoire, Groves and Kron, meanwhile, continued to tap out a strong rhythm in the breakaway alongside Samuele Battistella (Astana Qazaqstan), Max Poole (dsm-firmenich), Matteo Sobrero (Jayco AlUla), Paul Lapeira (AG2R Citroën), Andrea Piccolo (EF Education-EasyPost) and Louis Vervaeke (Soudal Quick-Step).

As they rolled into the seaside town of Suances, Lidl-Trek and Bahrain-Victorious both tried to bridge the gap that had fallen to 12 seconds, but the momentum fell once more the way of the front group. The tension was palpable as the kilometres to go ticker dropped below 80, with Tratnik successfully jumping across to the break and spelling the end of the ten-man move.

Everything was back together with 78km to ride. A breathless first period of the race was over, but the pace dithered not for a second.

Kaden Groves and Max Poole refuse to give up as the racing continues to intensify

After a welcome rest bite for the previous 45 minutes, torrential rain cascaded down upon the peloton once again as the likes of Lennard Kämna (Bora-Hansgrohe), Finn Fisher-Black (UAE Team Emirates) and Rui Costa (Intermarché-Circus-Wanty) went on the offensive. Attacks were numerous, however, as the race ticked under 70km to go.

As a result of the furious first hour or so of racing, the average speed stood at 49.2km/h after 59km.

The next small gathering off the front consisted of Groves, Poole, Mattia Cattaneo (Soudal Quick-Step), Nicolas Prodhomme (AG2R Citroën), Julius van den Berg (EF Education-EasyPost) and Joel Nicolau (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) - which looked to be the perfect formation.

© Velo Collection (TDW) / Getty Images

The definitive 'breakaway of the day' was eventually a six-rider move

Those who had missed this second formation were by now too exhausted to do anything about it, resulting in the gap ballooning out to a minute as the race entered the final 50km and a semblance of tranquillity took over for the first time in the stage.

Jumbo-Visma pegged the gap at a minute and it seemed as though the Dutch team had grand ambitions for the final climb to Bejes - which was to stand at 8.4% for 4.8km to the line.

Before Bejes, however, Groves had his eyes on the intermediate sprint and he duly delivered from the breakaway, picking up the maximum points and extending his lead in the points jersey over Kron and Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step). That was to be the Australian's last action in the breakaway, with the green jersey soon dropping back to the peloton and reducing the front group to five.

Luis León Sánchez (Astana Qazaqstan) was the unfortunate victim of a crash in the bunch and with Jumbo-Visma on the march at the front of the peloton, the breakaway was caught 10.2km shy of the line. A big GC showdown awaited.

Jonas Vingegaard attacks on the steep slopes to Bejes

With the race back together again at the head of proceedings, UAE Team Emirates, Movistar and Bora-Hansgrohe came to the fore, sensing that the GC riders would do battle on the final climb. With the final couple of kilometres averaging 10.4% and ramps pitching up to 17.1%, the race favourites would have to be well-positioned heading into the punchy finale.

Attila Valter led his Jumbo-Visma leaders onto the final test and the race was on, and it was Jonas Vingegaard who launched the first attack of the stage. Jumbo-Visma were playing the numbers game as they did on stage 13, forcing Sepp Kuss' rivals onto the back foot behind.

Fisher-Black mounted the most serious chase of Vingegaard, but the reigning Tour de France champion looked to have the same legs as he did on the Col du Tourmalet. Try as he might, Fisher-Black could not close the gap to the Dane and in the reduced peloton, the pace slowed.

Just as it had done on stage 13, the gap between Vingegaard and teammate and red jersey holder, Kuss, grew to over a minute. When Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) stole a march in pursuit, Kuss was right on his wheel. But the biggest surprise was yet to come, as Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma) attacked from the group.

© Sprint Cycling Agency

Sepp Kuss' days in the red jersey appear to be numbered

This created the bizarre situation of Roglič chasing down Vingegaard, who in turn was arguably attacking the race lead of Kuss. Sources close to the Jumbo-Visma team have told GCN that this was all part of the plan before the stage, but what was not part of the plan was Kuss struggling to hold the wheels inside the final kilometre.

Enric Mas (Movistar) and Ayuso followed in Roglič's wake, but Kuss was flagging behind. As the GC favourites played around with one another, Woet Poels (Bahrain-Victorious) and Michael Storer (Groupama-FDJ) took their opportunity to clip off up the road and take third and fourth, respectively, behind Vingegaard and Fisher-Black.

What stage 16 means for the general classification

Given the intel revealed to GCN that Jumbo-Visma had planned to go on the attack with Vingegaard from the very start of the day, it is not Jumbo-Visma's tactics who are most surprising, but perhaps those of their rivals behind.

© Sprint Cycling Agency

Jonas Vingegaard was emotional as he crossed the line, dedicating his victory to Nathan Van Hooydonck following his serious car crash

Ending the day with Vingegaard as the stage winner and Roglič losing no time to their GC challengers, Jumbo-Visma end the stage in a stronger position than they started it. Vingegaard has taken yet more time on the most likely non-Jumbo-Visma red jersey contender, Ayuso, whilst the Spaniard's teammate Fisher-Black was busy chasing the futile stage victory.

In the end, Ayuso lost 1:01 to Vingegaard, but regained four seconds on Kuss, so sits 2:33 down on the race lead. Behind Kuss, Vingegaard has leapfrogged teammate Roglič into second and is now only 29 seconds off the race lead, with the Slovenian holding a minute's buffer to Ayuso in third.

There was no other movement in the top 10 standings on the day, but Cian Uijtdebroeks (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates) faced time losses at the end of the stage.

All eyes now turn squarely on Jumbo-Visma, who appear to be losing interest in defending Kuss' red jersey, and becoming ever more confident in the prospects of Vingegaard as the final week rumbles on. There was an air of resignation to this fact in the closing metres, as Kuss became distanced from the group containing Roglič.

It appears just a matter of if, not when, the American will concede his red jersey to the reigning Tour de France champion.

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