Vuelta a Espana 2018: Stage 13

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January 1 - September 16, Candás. Carreño, Spain, Road - GT

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Hola! Back into the mountains we go...

Here's the stage profile

Before we go anywhere, some essential reading for you. Alasdair Fotheringham has written a big preview of this trio of mountain stages, with insight from a certain Alberto Contador. 

Yesterday the red jersey changed hands with Simon Yates losing the overall lead to Jesus Herrada, who was in the big breakaway. Here is Herrada this morning, alongside former teammate Alejandro Valverde in the green points jersey and current teammate Luis Angel Mate in the mountains jersey. 

To catch up on yesterday's action, which saw Alexandre Geniez take his third career stage win at the Vuelta, here's the link you need. Includes report, full results, and a photo gallery. 

We're off

Before the flag drops, here's a reminder of the overall standings. 

The scene on the start line a few moments ago...

Here we go!

It's full gas in the opening kilometres as riders try to attack and the peloton stretches. 

Four riders open up a small gap but now more attacks come from behind.

Coming up shortly, and a possible breakaway shaper, is that early climb.

There's a large group of 30 off the front now, with Team Sky chasing behind. 

160km remaining from 174km

Some familiar names in this move. Ben King already has two mountaintop stage wins at this Vuelta - surely he's just getting greedy now? Bauke Mollema has two runner-up finishes from breaks and is desperate for a win. The ever-reliable Thomas De Gendt is also in there for a second time in two days. Full list of names on the way. 

Interestingly, Herrada himself was off the front. He got a fair bit of rope yesterday but, already leading the race by more than three minutes, he's not going to be given much more. He drops back to the peloton, along with Sepp Kuss (LottoNL) and Nelson Oliveira (Movistar).

The 30-strong break starts to pull away over the top of the climb. Seeing this, some of those who missed out decide to jump from the peloton in a desperate bid to get across.

Here we go then. The 32 breakaway riders are as follows

KOM results at Alto de la Madera (km 21)

No points at that first climb for Maté but he'll have his sights firmly set on the rather larger prize that awaits at the top of the first-category Alto de Tarna after 105km. 

142km remaining from 174km

Ben King is the best-placed on GC of the breakaway riders, by the way. He's at 7:04. 

139km remaining from 174km

@PhotoGomezSport +info ➡ https://t.co/8awrzb6kUB #LaVuelta18 pic.twitter.com/YApl93dOFZ

44.8km were covered in the first hour of racing.

125km remaining from 174km

Fair play to Lotto Soudal for getting no fewer than 5 of the their 8 riders into the break.

Yesterday's stage ended on a slightly sour note as winner Alexandre Geniez and runner-up Dylan van Baarle crashed just beyond the finish line after a collision with an errant race official. Yes, really. Sadhbh O'Shea has the story:

113km remaining from 174km

100km remaining from 174km

Our latest podcast has just landed. It doesn't touch the Vuelta but is well worth a listen nonetheless. My colleagues Daniel Benson and Kirsten Frattini are in Canada for the Quebec and Montreal one-day races and as well as a preview of the action there's also an exclusive interview with Greg Van Avermaet, who talks about his season and the new dawn coming under CCC. Click here to listen.

The has extended to 9:30 in a short space of time. 

Cofidis aren't doing much to stop this break disappearing up the road, and GC teams have now started to get involved at the head of the peloton. Movistar and Mitchelton-Scott are both up there, as are LottoNL and even EF-Drapac.

The breakaway riders are approaching the first of the two Cat-1 climbs, the Puerto de Tarna. This is what it looks like. 

87km remaining from 174km

The breakaway riders have hit the lower slopes of the Puerto de Tarna.

The gap continues to fall as the peloton hit the climb. Movistar have taken control with three riders on the front, and the gap has come down to 7:23.

It had looked like it would be another day for the breakaway but now it's not so certain...

Alberto Contador has told us that this climb "won't do much". But it's a different story when it comes to La Camperona. Here he is in our stage preview. 

Movistar are setting a strong tempo here, and that's evident on two fronts; the gap is coming down all the time - 6:30 now - and the peloton is fragmenting.

75km remaining from 174km

It's Winner Anacona doing all the damage here for Movistar. Andrey Amador is on the wheel. Cofidis are tucked in behind them. 

Van der Sande and Bravo have lost contact with the break 4.5km from the top of the climb.

Astana have taken over from Movistar now. The gap is still 6 minutes. 

The breakaway riders come to the final kilometre of the climb. 

Maté wears the KOM jersey, while King is another rider up there in the standings. 

De Gendt opens the sprint for the banner

King responds but De Gendt takes maximum points. Maté comes across in a more distant third place. 

That was a hell of a sprint from De Gendt, and he and King have a sizeable gap as they begin the descent. 

63km remaining from 174km

A reminder of the stage profile. It's not much of a descent. 

KOM results at Puerto de Tarna (km 105)

Here are is the updated overall KOM classification after that climb.  

50km remaining from 174km

This stage is now pretty much a preamble ahead of the Camperona climb. This might whet your appetite...

Cofidis are contributing to the chase once again. 

Some awful, awful news to report. Kristina Vogel is paralysed from the chest down following a training crash. Full story here. 

41km remaining from 174km

Simon Yates' Mitchelton-Scott team have hardly done any work today. Here's what Yates had to say after handing the jersey over to Herrada yesterday. 

Crash in the break

An innocuous one, that, on a section of false flat, as riders exchange bottles. De Plus hits the deck, seemingly in a collision with McCarthy. 

King was also held up and is back in the cars just behind De Plus.

31km remaining from 174km

A reminder of the stage profile. The final climb begins with 8.3km to go. 

This is the Camperona's third appearance in five years. In both 2014 and 2016 it was followed 48 hours later by Lagos de Covadonga, as is the case in this Vuelta. 

17km remaining from 174km

Plenty of riders in the break coming through to help it along on the approach to the final climb. 

De Gendt is very prominent on the front of the break. Lotto Soudal still have four in there after Van der Sande was dropped earlier. Bjorg Lambrecht can climb... can the young Belgian produce a breakthrough performance in the pro ranks after a very impressive U23 campaign last year?

9km remaining from 174km

Here we go! La Camperona begins.

It's Movistar chasing on the approach in the peloton, with Cofidis still putting in the odd turn as well. 

Restrepo takes it up in the break on the gentler early gradients. His teammate Ilnur Zakarin has had a poor Vuelta so far but can he salvage something today?

The peloton hits the climb with a deficit of 3:35. 

Predictions please

Jay McCarthy and Thomas De Gendt are both dropped. They both did a fair bit of leg-work in helping to drive this break clear in the interests of teammates. 

Maté loses contact now, too.

Burghardt is on the front with Majka on the wheel. 

3km remaining from 174km

Conci is dropped too.

Zakarin accelerates!

That does for Burghardt, who is now pedalling squares. 

Majka is right on the wheel of Zakarin, and the Russian ups it again. 

3km remaining from 174km

King accelerates now. Surely he can't make it three?

2km remaining from 174km

Big splits in the break now on the double digit gradients. 

Majka goes. 

Kudus sets off in pursuit of Majka. 

Kudus drags his way across to Majka. 

This looks brutal. Teuns is chasing the leading duo. 

The peloton are 3 minutes back and about to hit the steeper gradients. 

Majka springs out of the saddle again and rides away from Kudus. 

Teuns comes past Kudus. 

Teuns is grinding his way across to Majka! It's almost a slow-motion battle out there. 

1km remaining from 174km

Mitchelton-Scott take it up in the peloton. 

It's Haig leading the way for Yates in the GC group, which is itself exploding. Quintana is lurking.

Up front Teuns leads the way with Majka in the wheel as the gradients hit 20%

Valverde, Kelderman, Uran all up towards the front of the GC group. 

Majka and Teuns round a bend and go side by side as the gradients somehow increase yet further. There's almost no use slipstreaming here. 

Kelderman is looking strong as he leads the GC group. 

Oscar Rodriguez appears from nowhere and catches the leading duo!

1km remaining from 174km

No attacks in the GC group but there aren't many left. 

Rodriguez has opened a huge gap!

What a win this would be for the Euskadi-Murias team. 

Seven riders are establishing themselves at the head of the GC group. Yates, Quintana, Valverde, Kelderman in there. 

Mechanical for Miguel Angel Lopez!

Lopez has to unclip and try to get going again. 

Rodriguez comes into the final 200m. He's surely going to get this...

Rodriguez cracks a smile as he comes into the final 50 metres. He raises his arms in celebration now. That's it. What a win!

Oscar Rodriguez (Euskadi-Murias) wins stage 13 of the Vuelta a España

Majka drops Teuns to finish second. 

Back down the road to the GC group and Quintana and Yates are away together

Quintana and Yates both look relaxed. They're several seconds ahead of the rest. 

Gorka Izaguirre is weaving across the road. He looks around and sees his brother Ion in the third group.

Quintana and Yates have maybe 15 seconds. 

Quintana springs from the saddle and accelerates in the final 200m

Quintana crosses the line. 

And now Yates, five seconds later. 

Valverde is next in, 11 seconds behind Yates. He crosses the line with Pinot and Lopez.  

Several seconds further back are Kelderman, Kruijswijk, Uran, and De la Cruz. 

Gallopin, Izaguirre, and Bennett all lose considerably more time. 

And then there's Aru, who looks like he's shipped another minute to Quintana. 

Stage 13 results

General classification after stage 13

That's the first professional victory for 23-year-old Oscar Rodriguez. 

It seems Rafal Majka can't quite believe it either...

Here's our report page

No huge gaps on GC but it seemed significant that Quintana and Yates came to the fore there. Some big stages to come this weekend but they look like the two main contenders for the red jersey. 

 

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