Everything was going great for Lidl-Trek’s Mathias Vacek in the Vuelta a España stage 2 until an incident with a spectator almost cost him the best young rider jersey. On the climb up the cat. 4 Alto da Batalha, Vacek hit the deck when fans, standing on the road, interfered with the path of the riders.
The Czech rider got up quickly and was seen gesturing towards the people on the side of the road before re-mounting on a new bike to try and chase back up to the field that was accelerating for the looming bunch sprint finish.
With already a 45-second gap to close down, the 22-year-old then had to dig deep in his solo chase, finally catching onto the back of the peloton with 10 kilometres to go.
"I crashed on the last climb with 20km to go," Vacek said. "Just some fans standing on the road. They touched me and I came down.
"It’s a bit annoying that some people just don’t care and don’t let the riders pass with some space, but that’s how it is. I came safe into the finish and I’m happy that I’m OK," he said.
“I needed to do a big effort to come back to the group, but I still could make it in such a good time and I could recover a bit. But I didn’t have the power anymore for the finish. It is how it is.”
Finishing second in the stage 1 time trial, Vacek was only two seconds back from overnight leader Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates) and wanted to snatch the red leader’s jersey with the bonus seconds available for the top 3 finishers in Ourém. It would be a tall order to do so as Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease A Bike), at three seconds down, was also in striking distance of the red jersey, but Vacek didn’t have the legs left to try.
He first tested his legs in the intermediate sprint, where one bonus second was still up for grabs after the two-man breakaway claimed the first two spots. But with sprint points also available, fast man Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck) had other plans as he sprinted for third and denied Vacek and Van Aert that one second.
Using so much energy to rejoin the field, Vacek was not able to contest the sprint and finished safely in the bunch in 44th place.
“For sure, I wanted to fight for the red jersey also at the finish and to do a good result, but with the crash and the effort I needed to put in, I didn’t have the legs anymore. I’m happy that I could keep the white jersey and that I’m OK.”
Vacek now sits in third place overall, five seconds behind new leader Van Aert who finished second behind winner Groves. He leads the best young rider classification with six seconds on Josh Tarling (Ineos Grenadiers).
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