Nelson Oliveira (Lampre-Merida) soloed to a maiden Grand Tour victory on stage 13 of the Vuelta a Espana, cleverly attacking on a long descent from a large breakaway with just under 30km to go and holding his lead to the finish in Tarazona.
Once he had opened up a gap on the descent of the final climb of the day – the third-category Alto de Moncayo – the multiple Portuguese time trial champion used his skillset and power to consolidate his lead, which continued to grow all the way to the line. Though the 26-year-old was alone against a chasing pack of over 20km, his victory was in no small part down to teamwork as Rubén Plaza and Valerio Conti did a great job of slowing the pace in the breaks and marking each and every attack.
Julien Simon (Cofidis) led the thoroughly beaten remains of the 24-rider breakaway to the line for second, with Nicolas Roche (Team Sky) third, nearly four minutes ahead of the peloton but just over a minute down on the triumphant Oliveira.
On stage 12 on Thursday it was exhausting simply to watch the Giant-Alpecin and Trek Factory Racing-led peloton chase down the break – something they only managed with 200 metres to spare. Today the hilly stage was always likely to suit the baroudeurs and they went on the attack from the very start. With an early third-category climb followed almost immediately by the first-category ascent of the Alto de Beratón, it was Astana who marshalled the peloton for much of the day, merely making sure things didn’t get too out of hand.
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Fabio Aru finished safely in the bunch and, following the abandon of Chris Froome on Thursday morning, the Italian saw another of his main rivals - Nairo Quintana suffer during the stage. The Colombian has been struggling with a fever and an upset stomach over the last few days and was dropped for a while on the first climb of the day. He has dropped out of the top 10 along with Louis Meintjes (MTN-Qhubeka) but that was by virtue of Gianluca Brambilla (Etixx-QuickStep), and Romain Sicard (Europcar) being in the break of the day and taking their places in the top ten thanks to the time the break gained on the peloton. All the main general classification contenders finished together in the bunch at 4:48. They will now look ahead to three days in the mountains, with three summit finishes, which are likely to be pivotal in the fight for the leader’s red jersey.
How it unfolded
The peloton lined up in Calatayud with 173 riders in its ranks after the overnight abandon of a sick Maarten Wynants (LottoNL-Jumbo). As expected, it was a fast and furious start to proceedings. With a breakaway always likely to stay away to the line, the fight to be in it was intense, with attacks, counter-attacks, and short-lived escape moves aplenty.
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