Cycling star Wout van Aert narrowly missed his fourth stage win in the Tour of Spain. The Belgian was beaten in a sprint by Australian Kaden Groves on the 14th stage over 200.5 kilometers from Villafranco del Bierzo to Villablino. For van Aert, Olympic bronze medalist in the individual time trial, it was already the seventh podium finish in this year’s Vuelta.
Australian Ben O’Connor is still in the lead in the overall rankings. However, his lead over three-time overall winner Primoz Roglic is only 1:21 minutes. The Slovenian from the German Red Bull team may be able to take over the red jersey on Sunday at the mountain finish in Valgrande-Pajares Cuitu Negru. Youngster Florian Lipowitz is still in a strong seventh place, just 4:29 minutes behind.
Roglic had to endure a moment of shock on Saturday when he suffered a flat tire on the descent towards the finish line and had to use a spare tire to get back on track.
On Sunday, at the end of the 15th stage, the 18.9-kilometer final climb of the highest category awaits with an average gradient of 7.1 percent. The Vuelta ends on September 8 in Madrid.
© dpa-infocom, dpa:240831-930-219026/1
This is a message directly from the dpa news channel.
