Results
|
# |
Rider Name (Country) Team |
Result |
|
1 |
Tadej Pogacar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates |
4:28:26 |
|
2 |
Primoz Roglic (Slo) Team Jumbo-Visma |
|
|
3 |
Pierre Latour (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale |
0:00:27 |
Tadej Pogacar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates
Estimated Weight – 64.5kg
Finish Position: 1st
Overall Stat’s for the stage
Time – 4:29:01
Speed – 36.9kph
Average Power – 258w, 4w/kg
Normalized Average Power – 309w, 4. 79w/kg
Work – 4973kj
Stage 13 of this years Vuelta was to be the next big show down after the high mountains of the Pyrenees, this feared mountain top finish of Los Machucos was going to have the top contenders for the GC fight it out on the massively steep gradients which the Vuelta is famous for.
The victory on this stage went to the new climbing sensation from Slovenia, 20-year-old Tadej Pogacar is in his first year with the professional’s and has already clocked up a number of amazing victories in 2019 including stage 9 of this year’s Vuelta in Andorra.
With a total of 7 categorized climbs it was going to be a hard day in the saddle even before they hit the final ascent to the summit finish. The pace was high on the first climb of the day as the riders wanting to make the early break made it a very aggressive start, this meant a high pace on the first climb of the day which was a 3rd category ALTO DE LA ESCRITA. Tadej averaged 346w, 5.36w/kg for the 9:41min it took the peloton to complete the climb. Once the early break was established the pace settled down and on the 3rd Category ALTO DE UBAL Tadej’s average power settled down to 300w, 4.65w/kg for 20:12min on the 6.9km climb. Jumb-Visma set a steady pace at the head of the peloton and allowing the large leading break of 28 riders to get an advantage of over 8min, the pace on the 3rd climb of the day which was the 2nd category COLLADO DE ASÓN went down to 242w, 3.75w/kg for 27:33min. The next 2nd Category climb of PUERTO DE ALISAS was at a slightly higher intensity of 312w, 4.83w/kg for the 22:31min it took the chasing peloton to cover the 8.4km climb.
With the leading breakaway starting to fragment as they had over 8min lead on the peloton, Team Astana took the charge on raising the pace to make it as difficult as possible in the 2 climbs before they hit the final climb of Los Machucos. This was obviously to cause as much hurt to the other contenders and set up an attack for their team leader Miguel Angel Lopez. Team Astana went to the front and set a very high pace on the 5.6km 3rd cat PUERTO DE FUENTE LA VARAS, Tadej’s power was increased to 356w, 5.52w/kg for 11:49min which was enough to see much of the peloton start to splinter as the high pace set by Astana was starting to takes its toll. This pace was to continue as they hit the penultimate climb of the day the PUERTO DE LA CRUZ USAÑO, this short 2.93km climb was ridding at a high pace which seen the break have their lead greatly reduced. On this climb Tadej averaged 367w, 5.69w/kg for 6:46min, it was over the top of this penultimate climb that the leading break’s advantage was down to only 5min.
Alto de Los Machucos
Summit Finish: Alto de Los Machucos, 6.4km at 10.1 %
|
Time |
Distance |
Ave Power |
Power-to-weight |
Avg speed |
|
21:59 |
6.4km |
402w |
6.23w/kg |
18.0kph |
The final showdown was on the steep slopes of the Alto de Los Machucos, this very steep climb with sections on 25% was see the break splinter and the peloton catch most of the early break in the opening kilometres of the climb. The peloton was still led by Team Astana who set a very high tempo at the bottom of the climb, this did not deter Nairo Quintana (Col) Movistar Team from attacking on the first steep section of the climb. He was chased by Astana and Tadej was still to the fore riding just behind the Astana train.
Chasing Nairo on bottom steep section:
1.4km at 14% - 6:08min
Ave Power – 418w, 6.48w/kg
This intensive bottom section was to see the leading group of GC contenders reduce down to 10 riders, the expected attack from Lopez never came to fruition and the leading break was now all but caught apart from the solo rider of Pierre Latour (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale who was just keeping a small advantage over the main GC riders. It was with around 3.3km to go that Tadej made his move to raise the tempo, as he hit the front of the select group of GC contenders he did 10sec at 498w, 7.72w/kg hitting a peak of 925w, 14.3w/kg. This effort was enough to split the group with Tadej and race leader Primoz Roglic (Slo) Team Jumbo-Visma riding away from the rest of the group. In the next 2.5km Tadej set a very high temp which was enough to catch the lone leader of Pierre Latour and edge out a lead of nearly 30sec to the other race favourites.
High Tempo at top of climb
2.5km @ 11.7% - 9:31min
Ave Power- 422w, 6.54w/kg
This effort of over 6.5w/kg at the top of the climb after already climbing at a pace of around 6w/kg for nearly 12min prior to this shows the true class and ability of this new talent. This was a massive effort that was to see Tadej take the stage win and move up to 3rd overall in the GC. Expect to see many more exploits in the future as this new talent will be a dominant force in cycling for a long time.
