Fending off a ferocious pursuit by Remco Evenepoel (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl), Australian rider Jay Vine (Alpecin-Deceuninck) pulled off a career-best result on the Vuelta’s first summit finish on Thursday.
The Australian attacked early on the final climb and dug deep to resist Evenepoel’s charge, which saw all of the other race contenders bar Enric Mas (Movistar Team) left far behind. The Belgian and Spaniard finished 15 and 16 seconds behind Vine, with Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) the only other rider within a minute. He was 55 seconds back, while triple Vuelta champion Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma), Pavel Sivakov (Ineos Grenadiers), Tao Geoghegan Hart (Ineos Grenadiers), Jai Hindley (Bora-Hansgrohe), Carlos Rodríguez (Ineos Grenadiers) and Simon Yates (Team BikeExchange-Jayco) finished 1:37 behind and
Every position inside the top 26 in the overall standings was reshuffled, with Evenepoel leaping up eight places to bump overnight leader Rudy Molard (Groupama-FDJ) down into second and Mas rising a dozen slots to third, one place ahead of Roglič. Ayuso was the other big mover, gaining 14 places into fifth. Sivakov and Geoghegan Hart are now sixth and seventh, Rodríguez and Yates are eighth and ninth and Joāo Almeda (UAE Team Emirates) is tenth.
There was no change in the top three of the points classification. Sam Bennett (Bora-hansgrohe) remains nine points ahead of Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo) and 80 in front of Wednesday’s winner Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates).
Victor Langellotti (Burgos-BH) holds the king of the mountains jersey he captured on Wednesday. Vine rockets up ten places to second, and Rubén Fernández is now third.
Evenepoel is best young rider, 1:12 ahead of Ayuso, while Sivakov slips one place to third.
UAE Team Emirates takes over as best team, leading Bahrain-Victorious and Ineos Grenadiers in that ranking.