La Vuelta Ciclista a España 2024 Stage 16

September 3, 2024 The third week gets started with another Especial climb and mountain top finish to Lagos de Covadonga. 180KM and two first category climbs come before which should put plenty of fatigue into the riders and will test their recovery from the rest day. It took over 30KM but a group of 17 got away. No one was threatening in GC so Decathlon AG2R let the gap grow to over 8 minutes with 118KM to go. Wout Van Aert of Visma-Lease a Bike led the break over the Mirador del Fito with 104KM to go and a gap of 10 minutes. Van Aert found himself alone on the descent and by the time he hit the valley road, he had a full minute. He was not caught until 76KM to go, 13KM before Collada Llomena, the second climb of the day. Just like on the Mirador del Fito, Van Aert took the mountains points and led the break over the top. In the bunch, Movistar started to ride on the Collada Llomena, slowly ramping up the pace towards the top. They managed to drop most of the bunch until finally Enric Mas attacked. He drew out the GC favorites with 2KM still to climb. Mikel Landa of T-Rex Quickstep counter attacked but most of the GC riders got back on terms. The group got larger as the pace slowed and about 25 riders started the descent together. Disaster struck in the break when Felix Engelhardt of Jayco AlUla high sided the bike and took a heavy fall into the concrete drain. Engelhardt was able to get back on his bike but Van Aert who was behind was not so lucky. He had nowhere to go and crashed into a rocky embankment. He tried to get back on but his knee was cut badly and could not continue, vacating both the Sprint and Mountains jersey's. Twelve riders remained in the break and they arrived at the foot of the 12.5KM Lagos de Covadonga with 6 minutes advantage. Marco Frigo of Israel-Premier Tech put in the first attack, bringing Isaac del Toro of UAE, Filippo Zana of Jayco AlUla and Max Poole of DSM-Firmenich with him. Marc Soler of UAE and Frigo's teammate Matthew Riccitello bridged up to make six. Poole was next to attack, this time Zana and Soler were the only ones to follow. Soler attacked at 4.5KM to go and he wouldn't be seen again. He emerged from the fog to cross the line first, his third Vuelta stage win in his career. Zana was next with Poole just behind for third place. In the GC group, Mattia Cattaneo of T-Rex Quickstep set the pace and reduced the group to 25 riders. Landa attacked with over 8KM to climb and no one reacted immediately. Mas started to ride and caught Landa with 6KM to go but the damage was done for Ben O'Connor who was dangling off the back then dropped. Mas drew out Primož Roglič of Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe, Richard Carapaz of EF-Education EasyPost, and David Gaudu of Groupama-FDJ. They rode to the line with Gaudu being the only one to slightly drop away but only by 7 seconds. O'Connor saved his lead by just 5 seconds to Roglič with Mas now at 1 minute 25 seconds back.