The 23-year-old is the best young rider
Matthew Riccitello (IPT) gave a ride of his young career up the brutal steeps of Bola del Mundo to climb into the best young rider's white jersey and top 5 at the Vuelta a Espana. The American climbed with the leading quartet and kept in contact near the summit to sixth on the stage. The result not only secured Riccitello the coveted white jersey, but leap-frogged him into fifth overall.
"The white jersey was a goal going into the stage. If it didn't happen, it had been a good Vuelta up until this point anyway. I went into the stage like I had nothing to lose. It was a really hard day all day, which I think suited me well. Pellizzari has been super strong all race. I think everything went perfect for me today.
All I had to was follow the wheels and hang as long as I could. I'm happy with how the legs have felt these three weeks and this last week in particular. To finish with the white jersey and 5th overall, it couldn't have gone any better today. I'm really happy. It was a really tough last climb. When it's that steep, it's hard to enjoy. You have to go as hard as you can to get up the thing. I definitely suffered a lot in the last couple of kilometres, but you cross the finish line and you forget all the suffering of the last three weeks. It was a really nice day."
-Matthew Riccitello
Tintin influenced - Bola del Mundo
Jonas Vingegaard has locked-up the GC win of the Vuelta a Espana, on the final summit finish on stage 20 in style by taking victory on the slopes of the Bola del Mundo. This will be his third Grand Tour win including 2 Tour de France victories - can a possible Giro d'ltalia be next?
"Actually, I was feeling, I wouldn't say comfortable in the pace that Joao was doing, but at least I felt like I was not on my limit yet. So I felt that I had a good chance of winning the stage. So yeah, at one point I just decided, now I'm gonna try. And then immediately I got a gap, and yeah, then the last few 100 metres was also incredibly hard, and I almost went into the barrier. So small mistake from my side."
-Jonas Vingegaard
Pidcock finishes fourth
"I'm pretty proud of myself, it's definitely the biggest performance of my career. It's maybe not the biggest win, others are more special, but... I'm exhausted to be honest and I can't really find any words, but the best thing is now I can just relax."
-Tom Pidcock
Look back...
At the start of the penultimate stage of La Vuelta 1985, Pedro Delgado was more than 6 minutes on the GC with virtually no chance of winning. Thanks to a puncture of Robert Millar (now Pippa York) and an agreement between Spanish teams - Millar, isolated, loses 6'49" at the finish in Palazuelos de Eresma and drops to 2nd on GC, behind Delgado who finished in second.
Tudor Pro Cycling Team's winning streak continues. After Julian Alaphilippe took victory in Quebec, Michael Storer charged away from breakaway companion Natnael Tesfazion (3rd) and Alexandre Delettre (2nd) and won the Memorial Marco Pantani.
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