Vuelta a España Stage 20: Landa Rescues Terrible Season, Mas Set for Overall Win

Just as Eddie Dunbar did on Friday, Mikel Landa resurrected himself at the Vuelta a España in bouncing back from a injury-blighted season.

The Basque Soudal Quick-Step rider fractured his pelvis in a crash at the Itzulia Basque Country race in April and admitted at the start of the Vuelta that he was a long way off his best form.

He said he’d tried to ride into shape and did just that, bridging to the day’s big break, pushing ahead with Tobias Hallend Johannessen (Uno-X Mobility) and Ramses Debruyne (Alpecin-Deceuninck) with 38km to go, and then dropping them just under 7km from the summit of the hors categorie Collado del Alguacil.

He dragged his way up the steep slopes, sweat dripping from his helmet, and crossed the line to capture his first win since August 2021, and the second Vuelta stage win of his career.

“I feel very happy,” he said, struggling to contain his emotions. “It is something I have been looking for for a long time, and finally I win again.

“It is really emotional. It has been a really hard season, a really hard Vuelta for me. Today was the last chance.”

Halland Johannessen finished 47 seconds back, with Debruyne at 1:27.

Behind, former winner Sepp Kuss (Visma-Lease a Bike) put in an utterly inspired ride, going from a long way out and gaining significant time over the over GC riders. He jumped from 11th to 5th overall as a result.

Felix Gall (Decathlon CMA CGM) made his own move closer to the line and managed to drop race leader Enric Mas and the rider in second overall, Primož Roglič.

He finished 17 seconds ahead of Mas (Movistar Team) and 55 second ahead of Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), but remains third overall.

With a mostly flat final stage tomorrow, that should essentially settle the GC.

Mas poised for biggest result of career

One day from the end of the Vuelta, Mas is even more secure in red than before. He holds a significant advantage of 2:15 over Roglič and 2:44 over Gall and, barring accident, is set to win.

The day was not an easy one: grueling gradients aside, the pressure was also on from constant attacks by Richard Carapaz. The EF Education-EasyPost rider had his eyes on a podium slot and surged again and again. He was ultimately unable to gap the others for any length of time, and stays fourth overall.

The Ecuadoran is 6:54 back while Kuss jumps six places to fifth, 8:45 behind. As for the rider who had been in that slot, Oscar Onley had a tough day, losing time, and is now sixth.

Like Landa, Mas appeared lost for words due to strong emotions.

“It is the first time in my life that I feel like this,” he said.

“To be honest, I was just counting the kilometers. My feeling was super. The team did again a super good job. I won because the team did everything for me. So thank you.”

He’s another rider who has returned from a long period of frustration, making this Vuelta an important turning point for several in the peloton.

A truly tough day

Vuelta organizers saved the toughest stage to last, with stage 20 a brutal day in the saddle with 4,850 meters of climbing.

There were five categorized mountains, with the first of those a cat 3 and the two ascents of Puerto de El Purche and one of Puerto de El Duque being category one.

The final climb was even more savage, with the summit finish at Collado del Alguacil rated hors categorie.

Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Ivo Oliveira (UAE Emirates-XRG) surged clear at the start and were joined by a dozen others, including Finn Fisher-Black and Gianni Vermeersch of Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, Pau Miquel (Bahrain-Victorious), Bryan Coquard and Louis Rouland from Cofidis, Oscar Chamberlain of Decathlon CMA CGM and, incredibly, six riders from Uno-X Mobility. These were Magnus Cort, Simon Dalby, Tobias Halland Johannessen, Andreas Kron, Andreas Leknessund and Rasmus Tiller.

American rider Matthew Riccitello (Decathlon CMA CGM) crashed with Chris Hamilton (Picnic PostNL) and while Riccitello initially got back up, both abandoned.

A huge chase group formed behind, but with Uno-X driving at the front of the breakaway, they had 3:30 on the chasers at the bottom of the Puerto de El Purche and a massive 10:30 over the peloton.

Then, with 100km left on the clock for the leaders, Kuss attacked the GC group. He was chased and caught by Carapaz, but Gall was sufficiently concerned to drag both back by the summit.

Landa got clear of the chase group with Walter Calzoni (Pinarello Q36.5), Lucas Hamilton (Netcompany Ineos) and Urko Berrade (Kern Pharma) and were 2:30 behind the leaders the second time up El Purche. Kuss tried again approximately 5km from the summit and started gaining real time.

Carapaz was less successful, with repeated attacks being reeled in by Gall.

Landa turns back the clock

Out front, Van Aert took maximum points on the two ascents of El Purche, bringing him close to the tally of mountains leader Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain-Victorious), and took the intermediate sprint around 43km to go.

That sealed his win in the points classification but his chances of taking the mountains competition fizzled out when he was distanced on the climb of El Duque. He dropped back to help Kuss try to gain time over the GC group, which was losing further ground due to surges by Carapaz, chasing by Gall and then lulls.

Both Debruyne and Landa had joined the break and these plus Halland Johannessen struck out with 38km remaining.

They raced onto the final climb together, where Landa punched clear approximately 6.8km from the summit. He gained more and more time and was well clear approaching the kite. Gall put in his own surge, dropping his rivals and reaching the line well ahead.

While he didn’t gain enough to dislodge Mas and Roglič, he did end the final mountain stage with a big confidence boost.

Dropping Mas after the Spaniard has been so strong is a good way to wind up his Vuelta.

“He has a bit of a cushion he can work with so maybe he also did not want to put himself into too much pain,” Gall said. “But of course it is nice to finish like that.”

What’s next

The final stage of the race avoids the traditional finish in Madrid and instead ends in Granada. The 112km race has four 2.1km climbs inside the final 44km of racing, but these have not been given official status. They will still hurt, though, and with the last of those just 8km from the finish, they may well determine who takes the stage.