Roglic in front of third Vuelta triumph

The Slovenian Radstar Primoz Roglic has not shown no weakness on the King's stage of Spain tour and is close to the Vuelta Triple. At the day win of the Colombian's Miguel Angel Lopez after 162.2 km with the brutally heavy final rise to the Altu d'El Gamoniteiru, the 31-year-old time-catching Olympic champion came in two rank and continued to expand his lead.

In the dense fog, Jumbo-Visma captain Roglic reached the target for 14 seconds to Lopez and pulled out for eight seconds ahead of his sharpest counterparty Enric Mas (Spain / both Movistar), which became the third. In the overall standings, the defending champion leads after the last heavy mountain stage with 2:30 in front of Mas, Lopez (2:53) is third.

At the final climbing area of ​​the day over 14.8 km and 1400 meters in an average of 9.8 percent gradient (17 percent in the top), Lopez had attacked about four kilometers in front of the highest point. Roglic did not drive behind and controlled the events at the rear wheel of Mas, which he depends shortly before the target.

The 31-year-old Roglic could win the Vuelta as only third prior to the Swiss Tony Rominger (1992 to 1994) and the Spaniard Roberto Heras (2003 to 2005) for the third time in a row. Heras is record winners of the youngest of the three major state tours with four wins. At the tour in June, Roglic had dropped early as a result of a serious fall.

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The Gamoniteiru, located on the same massive as the legendary Angliru, was for the first time in the program of the Vuelta. The section with nearly 4500 altitude meters was the last major power sample of the 76th Spain tour. On Friday and Saturday, moderate sections follow the Vuelta ends on Sunday with a single time trial in Santiago de Compostela.