5 hours ago
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Tom Pidcock stands to finish on the podium of the Vuelta a España on Sunday after surviving the final mountain test as Jonas Vingegaard rode away to take a stage 20 win that all but seals his overall victory.
Pidcock, defending an advantage of 39sec over Jai Hindley, wrestled his bike up gradients in excess of 20% to the summit of the Bola del Mundo – the last 3km of which were ridden on broken concrete in a brutal test of stamina at the end of three weeks.
More than once the Yorkshireman appeared to be losing the wheels of his rivals but he never cracked, crossing the line in fourth place, five seconds behind Hindley to all but ensure he will be on the podium after Sunday’s largely processional stage into Madrid.
After bonus seconds were applied, Pidcock ended the day 30sec clear of Hindley, and 3min 11sec behind Vingegaard.
It is a significant marker for the Olympic and former world mountain bike champion and former cyclo-cross world champion in the first Grand Tour where he has fully prioritised the general classification over stage wins.
“I’m pretty proud of myself, it’s definitely the biggest performance of my career,” the Q36.5 Pro Cycling rider said. “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.
“I think the best thing is now I can just relax. Day after day so you are so focused on everything, switched on for the race every day. Now I can just sit here. I don’t have to put this jacket on or drink cherry juice or the disgusting recovery drinks.”
Vingegaard set himself up to win the race when he increased his overall lead with victory on Saturday’s penultimate stage, leaving his closest rival João Almeida in his wake in the final kilometre.
After almost three weeks of racing, the Vuelta, and stage 20’s 165.6km ride from Robledo de Chavela, all came down to the last gruelling kilometres to the summit finish at Bola del Mundo, and Visma-Lease a Bike rider Vingegaard went for glory rather than simply defending his red jersey.
Portugal’s Almeida (UAE Team Emirates XRG) began the day 44 seconds behind the Dane but did not have the legs to challenge and trailed in fifth on the stage, 22 seconds behind Vingegaard, who holds a 1min 16sec lead going into Sunday’s final stage to Madrid.
Vingegaard’s teammate, and 2023 winner, Sepp Kuss was second on the stage, 11 seconds behind the winner, with Australian Hindley (Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe) in third.
