Vuelta a España: Marc Soler solos to stage 14 victory atop Alto de la Farrapona

Stage 14 of the Vuelta saw action even before the race got away from the neutral zone, with the latest pro-Palestine protest at the race blocking the peloton for a moment. Racing did get underway not long after, though, and there was action right from the flag being waved, with Jonas Rickaert (Alpecin-Deceuninck) making the first attack.

With 135.9km and almost 4,000m of elevation again awaiting the riders on the short but vicious stage in Asturias, and with a day up the Angliru in the legs from a day prior, several waves of moves followed Rickaert’s.

Debutant Finlay Pickering (Bahrain-Victorious) tried to burst away as the riders went over undulating roads heading south from Avilés. The young Brit was then bridged across to by a much larger group, as what looked like the day’s break began to establish itself.

The large breakaway on stage 14 at the Vuelta a España (Image credit: Getty Images)

22 riders had got themselves up the road: Mikkel Bjerg, Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), Victor Campenarts (Visma-Lease a Bike), Andrea Bagioli, Carlos Verona (Lidl-Trek), Jefferson Alveiro Cepeda (Movistar), Nico Denz, Tim van Dijke (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), Gianmarco Garofoli (Soudal-QuickStep), James Shaw (EF Education-EasyPost), Bruno Armirail, Léo Bisiaux, Jordan Labrosse, Johannes Staune-Mittet (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), Pickering, Fausto Masnada (XDS Astana), Pierre Thierry (Arkéa-B&B Hotels), Jesús Herrada, Sergio Samitier (Cofidis), Dion Smith (Intermarché-Wanty), Kevin Vermaerke (Picnic PostNL) and Jan Hirt (Israel-Premier Tech).

Campenaerts dropped out of the move due to a mechanical, which forced him to ride a Shimano neutral service bike for several kilometres and lose significant time. He did make it back in, eventually, and only after joining forces with Gijs Leemreize (Picnic PostNL) and doing a quite ridiculous 30km ride in no-man’s land, drawing a huge pat on the back in thanks from Leemreize when they did make it. Xabier Mikel Azparren (Q36.5) had also made the junction successfully, making it a group of 24 in front.

Victor Campenaerts among the break on stage 14 (Image credit: Getty Images)

Behind in the peloton, Campenaert’s Visma-Lease a Bike teammates were keeping the breakaway’s advantage at around 3:30 as the stage entered its final 100 kilometres. This had eked out past the four-minute mark as stage 14 hit 70km to go. Into the final 50km of racing, and the situation hadn’t changed much over the first categorised climb, L’Alto Tenebreo, apart from the gap to the breakaway extending to 6:11.

The peloton reached the foot of the viciously steep Puertu de San Llaurienzu (10.1 km at 8.5%) with 5:31 still to make up, so it looked more like a potential day for the breakaway to make it, especially with reports of a headwind up to Farrapona likely stalling a huge GC battle for the favourites.

UAE took over at the base from Visma, with Almeida’s support train well set up and ready to try something big over the penultimate climb. Simultaneously in front, Garofoli attacked, causing splits in the breakaway, including the dropping of Campenaerts and Bjerg.

Portuguese champion Ivo Oliveira emptied himself first for UAE, with Novak next in line to up the tempo. This already did for the likes of Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers), who has struggled heavily in the second week of the Vuelta, with 3km of the first category climb left to ascend.

UAE Team Emirates-XRG on stage 14 (Image credit: Getty Images)

As Juan Ayuso took over with 36.6km remaining, Almeida wasn’t perfectly positioned on his train; instead, he sat at the back in his usual fashion, with Jai Hindley’s Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe team moving up to occupy the second spot in the peloton.

Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) was the next to drop under UAE’s pressure. 35km from the finish, UAE continued to flex their team strength with four riders in what remained of the peloton, but were equal to Vingegaard, who had Matteo Jorgenson, Sepp Kuss and Ben Tulett for company.

13 of the original 24-rider breakaway were still chugging away up the climb, but their gap had been reduced to four minutes, with under 2km of the climb still to get through. Over the crest, it was down to 3:23, with Englishman Shaw launching an attack straight into the descent.

Ayuso rode over the crest with the gap down to 3:18, and only the windy climb up La Farrapona left to take on. As an excellent descent, he led Almeida and UAE safely down the downhill roads and towards the foot of the final 16.9km ascent, on its fourth appearance at the Vuelta a España.

The Spanish rider finished his big effort 20km from the finish, as Red Bull took over in the red jersey group with Denz, suggesting Hindley was on another good day. Bjerg and Campenaerts returned from the earlier break to up the numbers for the two top teams.

Shaw was caught and back in the break before they reached the 16.9km to go mark and proper start of La Farrapona, with UAE’s Soler then launching a counter-attack alongside Staune-Mittet, before leaving him to go solo.

UAE continued to work in the red jersey group, but it was their teammate Soler whom they were racing to chase down from the break, with Bjerg, Vine and Großschartner still alongside Almeida in the peloton with 11km to go.

With 6km to go and the most difficult part of the climb soon to come, Soler’s lead was at 2:45, with his teammates still working on the front through Vine. The Australian finished his effort in the final 5.1km, meaning Almeida only had Großschartner left for help. Though Vingegaard, too, lost some support, with Jorgenson going backwards.

Marc Soler solo on the final climb of stage 14 (Image credit: Getty Images)

With UAE not making much impression on Soler’s lead and Großschartner running out of steam, Pellizzari took over to give Hindley a turn at the 3km to go banner. In the red jersey group, only Almeida, Vingegaard, Pidcock, Kuss, Gall, Matthew Riccitello (Israel-Premier Tech) and Torstein Træen (Bahrain-Victorious) remained.

Pellizzari pressed on, but Soler had just 1.6km left to make it to the victory. Hindley finally made his move, bringing Almeida and Vingegaard with him and forcing Pidcock into a chase.

The Brit battled away but was on a gap to the Australian, and even with help from the likes of Gall and Riccitello, who also chased to try to maintain their GC positions in the top 10, Pidcock still couldn’t reach the trio’s wheel.

Soler arrived soon at the line atop La Farrapona, with a big celebration as he confirmed his fourth career Vuelta stage win, and righted the wrongs of his loss atop the same climb five years earlier, when he’d lost to David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ).

Hindley led out the sprint for second to try and maximise his gain, but Almeida quickly came around him with power, before Vingegaard found an extra bit of punch around the last bend and pipped the Portuguese rider for the six bonus seconds.