La Vuelta Ciclista a España 2024 Stage 19

September 6, 2024 The Puerto de Pradilla is offered as an hors d'oeuvre before the main course of the Alto de Moncalvillo. The final climb is over 8 kilometers in length at an average gradient of 9% which will be more than enough for riders who still have something left in the legs to make a difference. A tail wind sent the riders off at a rapid pace making it very difficult to get a break established. In the end, it was just five riders to get off the front including Isaac del Toro of UAE, Vito Braet and Simone Petilli of Intermarché-Wanty, Edward Planckaert of Alpecin-Deceuninck, and Fran Miholjević of Bahrain-Victorious. Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe took the front of the peloton and kept the gap between 4 and 5 minutes which signaled intention to bring the break back for a GC battle and potential stage win. The break went over the Puerto de Pradilla with a reduced gap of 2 minutes 40 seconds with 78KM to go. Miholjević was the last man standing from the break, just getting caught as he turned right on to the base of the Alto de Moncalvillo. Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe hit the bottom like a sprint finish. Just 3KM later, the group split and Primož Roglič was at the front with teammates Dani Martinez and Aleksandr Vlasov as everyone else behind was struggling to keep pace. Roglič went solo as Vlasov pulled off at 5KM from the top with a gap already out to over 30 seconds. Enric Mas of Movistar was next to attack and with 3KM to go, Roglič was up by 1 minute with Mas in the middle between Roglič and the rest of the GC riders. It was only in the final 1.5KM that the group broke up. First it was race leader Ben O'Connor of Decathlon AG2R that fell off the back as David Gaudu of Groupama-FDJ attacked. Roglič took the win as well as the Red Jersey and is still the only rider to have won atop Moncalvillo. Behind, Gaudu put in a strong last kilometer to overtake Mas with 50M to go. Mattias Skjelmose of Lidl-Trek also put in a great ride to get around Mas on the line to take third on the day. The GC now has Roglič in front by 1 minute 54 seconds to O'Connor and 2 minutes 20 seconds to Mas. Skjelmose jumped to 6th overall and now holds the White Jersey as best young rider.