2018 Vuelta a España Stage 19 Results & Recap
Stage 19 of the 2018 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
Pinot doubles at Vuelta
Thibaut Pinot (Groupama-FDJ) won his second stage of the Vuelta a Espana after ascending the latter part of the Col de la Rabassa with Simon Yates (Mitchelton Scott). The Frenchman also won the uphill race toward Lagos de Covadonga just one week ago.
“La Vuelta was already a success on Sunday (after the victory at Lagos de Covadonga),” Pinot said. “I had come without pressure. I didn’t have the general classification in my mind, I wanted to win stages. The first victory, it was already very good. And now, two victories, it allows me to hammer it down. It’s a dream Vuelta. I wanted to enjoy myself and I proved I was able to win head to head with the strongest climbers. I had ticked those two stages. Today, the climb was longer and not as steep, it suited my abilities better. And I enjoyed a strong ascent from Simon Yates to go get the victory. He proved he was the strongest today.”
Simon Yates all but put the nail in the coffin in the overall competition, dominating his GC rivals and finishing second to Pinot on the day. The British climber put more than a minute into his closest competitior, Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) distancing himself by 1 minute and 36 seconds before tomorrow’s 97km intense mountain stage.
“Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, it’s part of cycling,” Valverde said. “What’s happened to me today can also happen to him (Simon Yates) tomorrow. To win La Vuelta is complicated, for sure. It was complicated this morning, it’s complicated now, but it’s not impossible. We’re going to try. I’m still confident. There were riders in front when Yates attacked. It was a well done move.”
Despite an aggressive start, Movistar wouldn’t let any attack stay off the front for more than 70 kilometres on stage 19. Finally, Ben Thomas (Groupama-FDJ) and Jonathan Castroviejo (Team Sky) took off with Tom Van Asbroeck (Education First-Drapac).
Van Asbroeck gave up the ghost and headed back into the peloton when he realized Movistar wasn’t going to let the breakaway have much of a leash, and the two riders left made it to the base of the final climb before being reabsorbed.
Playing the role of super domestique, Nairo Quintana (Movistar Team) was the first to launch an attack with 13km to go. Steven Kruijswijk and George Bennett (LottoNL-Jumbo) jumped across, as did Pinot and Yates a few moments later.
With Quintana and Bennett dropped, the trio gradually built up a minute on the Valverde and Lopez group. Valverde dropped out of the GC group and Kruijswijk up to third on GC, 20 seconds behind Valverde.
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