2017 Vuelta a España Stage 14 Results & Recap
Stage 14 of the 2017 Vuelta a España is in the books. The final results and standings are below, followed by our recap of how the race unfolded.
Race Recap
Majka wins stage 14
Rafal Majka soloed to victory after spending the day in the early break on stage 14 of the Vuelta a Espana. The Bora – Hansgrohe rider attacked his breakaway companions at the beginning of the final 'especial' climb Sierra de la Pandera and held off the GC favorites by around 30 seconds.
Best young rider Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana) took second and Vincenzo Nibali (Bahrain Merida) finished third a few seconds later. Chris Froome maintains his GC by 55 seconds ahead of Nibali after the 175 km stage.
Play by Play
Contrary to previous stages at the Vuelta, it didn’t take long for the break to form after a few tries before the first category 3 climb.
Luis Ángel Maté (Cofidis, Solutions Crédits), Rui Costa (UAE Team Emirates), Rafal Majka (Bora – Hansgrohe), Bart De Clercq (Lotto Soudal), Ricardo Vilela (Manzana Postobon), Stefan Denifl (Aqua Blue Sport), Simon Clarke (Cannondale Drapac), Davide Villella (Cannondale Drapac) and Patrick Konrad (Bora – Hansgrohe) all escaped the peloton and gained a maximum of seven minutes and 30 seconds from the Sky-led field.
The gap started to go the other way when Bahrain Merida, Trek Segafredo and Astana merged at the front before the final two climbs. In fact it quickly disintegrated, along with half of the riders in the break when Patrick Konrad (Bora-Hansgrohe) attacked on the second category Alto Valdepeñas de Jaén to set up Majka.
Only Majka, Konrad, Rui Costa (UAE Team Emirates), Bart De Clercq (Lotto Soudal), Davide Villella (Cannondale Drapac) remained with 20 kilometres to go. Villella quickly dropped off after he collected points on the second to last climb.
With 10 kilometres left, Majka saw his opportunity and accelerated with a strength unmatched by his opponents.
Back in the GC group, Nibali, Chaves and Bardet took turns attacking the red jersey, but none of the attempts produced anything substantial.
\n
Get our full coverage of the Vuelta a España and every race we cover with our mobile app! The apps have over 100 additional exclusive features, including our award-winning Time Machine feature that lets you pause/rewind/replay the entire app to sync with delayed race video, integrated Fantasy Cycling, push notifications, an integrated news feed, live GPS tracking, world-class commentary, and our animated interactive maps and profiles.
