After stormy days in the mountains of northern Spain, the cycling caravan moves to Castile. In the 19th flat stage, a sprint battle is expected, but also escape attempts, while the total is decided. Unless the overpowering wind cooked up something new…
Flat stage along Leon from La Baneza to Iscar. But despite only 919 meters of altitude in 177 km, the high plateau brings a threat in the form of the wind, which should strengthen in the last hour and a half of the race.
If Remco Evenepoel is motivated, he can fight for the green jersey held by Kaden Groves. The Australian sprinter from the Alpecin Deceuninck team has 228 points, while the holder of the dotted shirt is at 192 points. At the flying finish 20 km before the real finish and at the end in Iscar, a maximum of 70 points are available for the green shirt.
Bees they are defending a triple lead
Dutch team Jumbo Visma was on Tuesday and Wednesday after inconsistent rides in the stages with mountain finishes, on Thursday only united in the protection of the red shirt, which is on the shoulders of the American Sepp Kuss.
Kuss is 17 seconds ahead of Vingegaard at the top of the classification, while Roglič is 1:08 minutes behind. The fourth-placed Spaniard Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) was already four minutes behind.
An eventful Saturday stage without a meter of flat
After today’s stage, which will start at 1:29 p.m. and end around 5:30 p.m., in which the sprinters will most likely take their turn, only Saturday’s test will be challenging. This brings as many as ten climbs, but all of them are of the third category. On Sunday, there will only be a sprint procession through Madrid, after which the winner of the 78th Race across Spain will be officially announced.
78. RACE ACROSS SPAIN
STAGE 19, La Baneza-Iscar, 177.1 km:
OVERALL PENDING ORDER AFTER STAGE 18
1. S. KUSS ZDA 65:31:27 2. J. VINGEGAARD DAN +0:17 3. P. ROGLIČ SLO 1:08 4. J. AYUSO ŠPA 4:00 5. M. LANDA ŠPA 4:19 6. E. MAS ŠPA 4:30 7. C. UIJTDEBROEKS BEL 7:27 8. A. VLASOV RUS 8:35 9. J. ALMEDIA POR 10:20 10. S. BUITRAGO KOL 12:20 ... 13. R. EVENEPOEL BEL 27:53 32. J. TRATNIK SLO 1:49:23 130. D. NOVAK SLO 3:47:09 133. M. GOVEKAR SLO 3:52:20
Source: Rtvslo
