The Asturian monster
Jonas Vingegaard had to settle for second on stage 13. He was unable to distance Joao Almeida, who set the pace in the final six kilometres and dropped everyone except the Dane. Almeida becomes the ninth different winner at L'Angliru from ten La Vuelta finishes atop the iconic climb. For Almeida is his first stage victory in the Spanish Grand Tour. Tom Pidcock (Q36.5) remains third overall at 2'18". Jai Hindley (Red Bull Bora Hansgrohe) thrived on the 20 percent Auturian ramps and finished third on the stage to vault four spots to fourth overall.
"Jonas was always on my wheel, the last kilometre I was on the limit, I guess we were both on the limit. I was waiting for his attack any time. I thought he was going to pass me at the finish line, I knew it quite well from two years ago and I took the first corner first and then it's hard to pass. It was an amazing day, I think it's the hardest climb in the world, it's crazy. Oof, I'm very sore."
-Joao Almeida
"It was a hard climb, super tough. It was finding the rhythm there, unforgiving... I was at the start I was ok but I knew I couldn't continue that pace all the way to the top."
-Tom Pidcock. He holds a gap of less than a minute over Jai Hindley and Felix Gall who also thrived on the tough gradients of the Asturian climb.
Pocket climber, Matthew Riccitello (IPT) 8th place moves up to 7th on GC
Tour of Britain stage 4...
Romain Grégoire (Groupama FDJ) sprinted to the win on stage 4 of the Tour of Britain's longest stage, with Julian Alaphilippe (2018 winner, Turdo Pro Cycling) coming in second. Grégoire leads the GC with two seconds on Matthew Brennan (Visma) and Alaphilippe.
"Riders like Remco want to have a hard race and attacked far from the finish to make the race hard but it was good for me, it was perfect. At the moment, I feel good, but tomorrow is another day, the final is even harder, a 5km climb, so we will see tomorrow but I'm ready to fight. When you have a jersey like this you have the motivation to battle for it and that's what I'm going to do."
-Romain Grégoire
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