Danny van Poppel (Trek Factory) won a hectic last-gasp sprint in Lleida on stage 12 of the Vuelta a Espana after an intense chase by the peloton caught the five-rider breakaway in sight of the finish line.
Van Poppel flatted with 10km to go but managed to get back into the peloton and then timed his sprint to perfection, passing his sprint rivals in the final twenty metres. Daryl Impey (Orica-GreenEdge) was second with Tosh van der Sande (Lotto Soudal) third. John Degenkolb (Giant-Alpecin) was again thwarted after being blocked in in the sprint.
Trek Factory Racing had done much of the work in pursuit of the breakaway on the fast downhill roads from Andorra and van Poppel paid them back with his first ever Grand Tour victory.
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“We pulled all day with the Italian guys, and in the end it was a really nice sprint,” van Poppel said immediately after his victory.
“It was not really a puncture, it was just slowly going down. I changed it and I came back really well. My teammates did a great job to bring me back. I suffered a lot yesterday (during the mountain stage in Andorra) and I really wanted to win today.”
Fabio Aru (Astana) finished safely in the peloton and so kept the race leader’s red jersey for a second day. Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) remains second overall at 27 seconds, with Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin) third at 30 seconds. Chris Froome failed to start the stage due to a fractured foot he sustained on stage 11.
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
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