Junior Lecerf is on the verge of his best GC finish in a Grand Tour.
Bola del Mundo returned at the Vuelta for the first time in more than a decade, the cherry on the cake at the end of a tough day of racing with five classified climbs that amounted to a total of 4200 meters of elevation gain.
Right from the start, there was a flurry of attacks, and T-Rex Quick-Step immediately joined the party with Mikel Landa and Mauri Vansevenant. The group kept getting bigger and bigger to the point it numbered 37 riders, but their gap remained at all times around the two-minute mark, as some of the GC teams made sure of tightly controlling this margin. Landa – runner-up a couple of days ago – was one of the strongest riders in the group, and in the final 30 kilometers he attacked numerous times; the Basque made a selection and kept persevering also on the descent, before the start of the 12.2km Bola del Mundo.
Briefly dropped there, Mikel dragged himself back at the front of the race, where he remained until three kilometers to go, when the race surface became concrete, making it more difficult for the riders, who also had to overcome the slopes which reached 20%. Caught by the reduced peloton which also featured teammate Junior Lecerf, Landa was then distanced, but this didn’t stop him from concluding an impressive top 15 after more than 125 kilometers in the breakaway – a great ride that brought him his second most combative rider of the stage trophy.
“I knew it was going to be the last opportunity to go for a stage victory, and although we knew it would be difficult, we did our best in the leading group. We had around one minute before the last ascent, but it wasn’t enough in the headwind and on those tough gradients. I left it all out there and I am really content with finishing the race like this”, Mikel said.
Lecerf was the other T-Rex Quick-Step rider to impress on one of cycling’s hardest climbs, despite both the pace in the group and the gradients ramping up. The Belgian kept hanging on seventh or eighth wheel until the final two kilometers, when he lost contact with the group from where Jonas Vingegaard (Visma – Lease a Bike) emerged victorious. Junior did his own race as the top of Bola del Mundo got closer and closer, and eventually finished a remarkable ninth.
“We did well from the start, placing a couple of guys in the break, but the GC teams didn’t give too much space to the group and they reeled them in with just a few kilometers left. It’s a pity, because Mikel had good legs and could have fought for the win. Louis and Max did a great job for me in the peloton, protecting and keeping me out of the wind, something for which I am grateful. At the same time, I am satisfied with getting a top ten on this climb after a hard day of racing”, Junior explained after cementing his 11th place in the ranking.
Photo credit: ©Dario Belingheri / Getty Images
