Ben O'Connor's lead slashed to five seconds as Marc Soler wins Stage 16 and Wout van Aert crashes out at Vuelta a Espana
Updated 03/09/2024 at 19:30 GMT+1
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A wild and wet day at the Vuelta a Espana on Tuesday saw Marc Soler claim a gutsy victory from the breakaway atop Lagos de Covadonga, Ben O'Connor retain his red jersey by just five seconds on Primoz Roglic, and green jersey Wout van Aert crash out after seemingly stealing a march in the polka dot jersey standings. With five days to go until Madrid, everything remains in the balance.
Highlights: Soler claims victory on Stage 16, O’Connor clings onto red jersey, Van Aert crashes out
Video credit: TNT Sports
Marc Soler yo-yoed his way in typical Marc Soler fashion to a third career win on the Vuelta a Espana with victory from the breakaway at Lagos de Covadonga in Stage 16 as Wout van Aert crashed out and Primoz Roglic came to within five seconds of Ben O’Connor’s red jersey on a dramatic and action-packed day in northern Spain.
Mercurial Spanish climber Soler (UAE Team Emirates) proved the strongest of a 17-man breakaway that lost its driving force Van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) after the Belgian crashed badly on a slippery descent inside the final 50 kilometres.
Van Aert, who led the green jersey standings, had taken maximum points over the first two climbs of the day to move eight-points clear of Australia’s Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates) in the polka dot jersey standings when he badly injured his knee in a fall that also took out two other escapees at the front of the race.
On the final climb to Lagos de Covadonga, Soler rode back into contention before going clear of Britain’s Max Poole (Team dsm-firmenich PostNL) and Italy’s Filippo Zana (Jayco-AlUla) with around 4.5km remaining of the mythical ascent in the Asturias.
Soler came home in the mist and rain to take only the seventh win of his career by a margin of 18 seconds on Zana and 23 seconds on 21-year-old debutant Poole, with Vine in fourth place at 57 seconds to consolidate his de facto lead in the KOM standings in Van Aert’s enforced absence.
Triple champion Roglic (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) finished in a select chase group alongside Spain’s Enric Mas (Movistar) and Ecuador’s Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EastPost) just under four minutes adrift after Mikel Landa’s earlier attack distanced the race leader O’Connor (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) shortly after the steepest section of the climb, the stinging double-digit ramp of La Huesera, seven kilometres from the summit.
A late rally by O’Connor saw the Australian hold on to the red jersey by just five seconds as the GC battle intensified at the start of the decisive final week of racing.
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‘What a brave ride!’ – O’Connor keeps hold of red jersey with spirited finish
Video credit: TNT Sports
With Roglic now clear favourite for a fourth Vuelta crown, third place Mas – three times a runner-up in his national race – himself moved within 1’25” of the race summit. Carapaz is now 1’46” down while Spain’s Landa (Soudal Quick-Step) completes the top five at 2’18”.
Spain’s Carlos Rodriguez (Ineos Grenadiers) took over the white jersey from Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) after the German dropped three places to ninth, while Australia’s Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck) took over the green jersey from Van Aert following the withdrawal of the triple stage winner in the wake of his crash.
Van Aert brought clattering down to earth
If the Belgian was one of the first to put in an acceleration as the peloton left the beautiful coastal town of Luanco at the start of the 180km Stage 16 then his early spill after just four kilometres was also a sign of what was to come.
After battling back into the peloton, Van Aert was then one of 15 riders who forced the first significant gap on the pack. Inside this break, Van Aert found himself up against his polka dot jersey rival Vine and two of the Australian’s UAE team-mates in Soler and Mexican debutant Isaac del Toro.
Also in the move were William Lecerf (Soudal Quick-Step), Marco Frigo and Matthew Riccitello (both Israel-Premier Tech), Darren Rafferty (EF Education-EasyPost), Oier Lazkano (Movistar), Fran Miholjevic (Bahrain Victorious), Felix Englehart and Zana (both Jayco-AlUla), Simon Guglielmi (Arkea-B&B Hotels), Martijn Tusveld and Poole (both Team dsm-firmenich PostNL).
As chasers Ion Izagirre (Cofidis) and Sylvain Moniquet (Lotto Dstny) bridged over to make it 17 men in the lead, the gap ballooned to almost 10 minutes to reflect the lack of concern held by O’Connor and his Decathlon team-mates.
Indeed, with the American tyro Riccitello the best-placed rider on GC – but just over one hour in arrears – there was no chance that O’Connor would be put under pressure by any riders up the road; his focus remained on the likes of Roglic, Mas and Carapaz.
Despite a bid by UAE to use their power in numbers on the first of two Cat.1 climbs, Van Aert rode clear on the Mirador del Fito to take the maximum points over the summit and move four points clear of Vine in the polka dot jersey standings. The Belgian then kicked on to open up a gap of over a minute on the break before eventually deciding to sit up and wait for his colleagues.
Van Aert was at it again on the second climb, the Collada Llamena, when he edged clear of Vine once again to double his lead to eight points. With a chance to extend his lead in the intermediate sprint coming up, Van Aert was in the process of strengthening his position at the top of both the classifications ahead of Wednesday’s stage, for which he was thought to be among the favourites.
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'He's done' - Van Aert crashes out of Vuelta on slippery descent
Video credit: TNT Sports
But disaster struck on the descent as a light drizzle caused chaos on the front of the break. German rider Engelhart skidded out and forced Van Aert and Del Toro into taking evasive action – the Belgian overcooking the bend and hitting a rocky slope to the right of the road.
Van Aert remounted but quickly came to a halt before sitting in the boot of his Visma-Lease a Bike car while awaiting an ambulance – a sorry end to an otherwise magnificent comeback from the 29-year-old.
Mas attack puts O'Connor under pressure
Meanwhile, back in the peloton, Movistar were putting their riders to work for leader Mas, tapping out a tempo that reduced the advantage of the break while whittling down the main field to around 25 riders.
After losing his last two team-mates, Nairo Quintana and Einer Rubio, but with Lazkano dropping back from the breakaway ahead, Mas pulled the trigger with 55km still remaining – forcing a reply from the likes of Roglic, Carapaz and, eventually, O’Connor. The race regrouped, but Mas had shown his hand.
It was Mas who would again test his legs on the final climb to Lagos de Covadonga, the Spaniard piling on the pressure on O’Connor with just over 6km remaining after Landa had made the first move from the group of favourites.
Further up the road, Soler had recovered from an earlier wobble to ride back onto the wheel of Poole, Zana and Frigo after the remnants of the break broke down on the steepest section of the decisive climb. Third and second in successive stages last week, Poole looked likely to go one better and take a maiden pro win after a rasping attack – only for Soler to battle back on again in typical never-say-die fashion.
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'Ride that raft before it sinks!’ – Soler launches ‘not pretty but effective’ attack
Video credit: TNT Sports
Soler and Poole traded blows until the Spaniard finally came out on top with 4.5km to go, Soler riding off into the rain on his way to a third stage win on the Vuelta following previous successes in 2020 and 2022.
Asked whether it was the biggest win of his career, the laconic UAE Team Emirates rider said: “No, but it’s very special because I didn’t win a lot with this team and after two years to win again on the Vuelta is very special.”
O'Connor lives to fight another day in red
Meanwhile, Mas looked to repay his Movistar team-mates for all their hard work with a series of attacks on the front of the group of GC favourites. With O’Connor distanced, Mas led Carapaz, Roglic and the Frenchman David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) back onto the wheel of Landa.
With the gap back to the Australian growing, Roglic suddenly found his legs and came to the front to help the pacing. A trio of Mas, Carapaz and Roglic crossed the line 3’54” down to start the stopwatch back to the race leader, who emerged through the mist a picture of pain but determination.
‘What a brave ride!’ – O’Connor keeps hold of red jersey with spirited finish
Video credit: TNT Sports
Isolated and alone, O’Connor came home in 20th place and limited his losses to 58 seconds – giving him a slender five-second lead going into Wednesday’s Stage 17, a 141.5km ride through the medium mountains that concludes with a flat finish that should reopen the doors to Groves, the new green jersey.
With his rival Van Aert gone, the Australian will have a chance to complete his own hat-trick of stage wins and extend his lead in the points classification. How things change fast on a Grand Tour like the Vuelta.
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