DISCUSSION Vuelta a España Stage 19 | Was this the most disappointing day of the race?

The antepenultimate stage of the Vuelta a España was essentially flat with an uphill finale, which was a perfect opportunity for the fast men to shine once again after many days of invisibility.

The breakaway was expected to be hard-fought, as today’s stage was the last chance for many riders to be protagonists. However, the outcome was completely the opposite, given that only two riders went clear and distanced from peloton.

The two riders in question were Jakub Otruba and Victor Guernalec, but the French man decided to take the foot off the gas and let Otruba go in a solo adventure. Kilometers passed by with little to no action, until the race arrived to Salamanca with 50km to go.

There, Alpecin and Visma accelerated in hopes of causing echelons. UAE and Almeida were caught off guard, but they managed to solve the situation. In the intermediate sprint, Visma were once again very vigilant and launched Vingegaard, who grabbed 4 bonus seconds and increased his lead over Almeida, while Jorgenson obtained two.

With around 30km to go, two Burgos Burpellet teammates – Mario Aparicio and Sergio Chumil established a second breakaway, but they were quickly caught by the bunch.

A final sprint was the inevitable outcome, and the main favourite was Jasper Philipsen. Alpecin delivered a perfect lead out and the Belgian just had to finish the job, obtaining his third stage victory of this edition. Mads Pedersen and Orluis Aular completed the podium.

Once the stage finished, we asked some of our writers to share their thoughts and main takeaways about what happened today.

Well, in terms of profile it is the typical not amusing stage which i dislike to see on the grand tours. No difficulties, no mountain passes and no interest in creating a breakaway. With all this being considered, we actually had more to this stage than i initially expected.

We've had crosswinds and an attempt to break the peloton, we've had an intermediate sprint with bonus seconds for the GC guys and a difficult sprint finish with plenty of teams making some desperate pushes to try and go for a stage win that is getting more and more difficult to obtain.

Jasper Philipsen won another bunch sprint, confirming the expected status as the best sprinter of this Vuelta, but that is not saying much given that usually the pure sprinters tend to skip this race. Still he has displayed good capacity of withstanding a slightly uphill approach to the final KM and only in the last meters he was able to obtain optimal position to launch the sprint, so also great team work from Alpecin today.

What i did want to talk about though was that intermediate sprint. It is shockingly amateurish to me that, with only 1 man in the break, Visma was able to take such an easy 4 bonus seconds with Vingegaard with no reaction from UAE whatsoever. UAE was nowhere to be seen on that sprint. Maybe they assumed Pedersen would want to take points for the green jersey? Ok, i'd agree he would but who else would?

It is not like Pedersen has much competition for the points jersey either, apart from... Vingegaard himself. Again, this is a reflection of how lost the whole structure of UAE is on this Vuelta. Vingegaard has 44 seconds over Almeida at this point, 24 of which are obtained via bonus seconds.

Small details that can make the difference between bringing the red jersey home or not. Unfortunatelly, i think it is too late for João Almeida and tomorrow he will be highly marked by Vingegaard who only needs to defend from the portuguese rider.

A no-show with a finale that we've already seen a few times, to be honest. The Vuelta has lacked the spectacular stages and finales and today's stage was a good example of that. Despite very few teams having a stage win or a proper result to show for, most did not even try to get in the breakaway today which is absolutely incomprehensible, and a trend that I honestly don't know is still followed in Grand Tours.

We had for the very 1st time echelons risks in the race, although they came to nothing, and a bunch sprint that almost seemed to follow the same script we've seen already several times, with the modest Alpecin leadout ruling over all others because there are simply no other World-Tour level leadout in the race, and Jasper Philipsen delivering the win because he is by far the fastest pure sprinter in the race.

The highlight of the day was Jonas Vingegaard capturing 4 seconds, allowed by the lack of combativity from around a dozen teams, and capitalized fully. Whilst this was known to everyone, UAE did not have a single man towards the front of the peloton to prevent the Dane from gaining free time on João Almeida, which is a rookie mistake at the very highest level.

Sure, 4 seconds are very unlikely to make a difference by the end of Bola del Mundo tomorrow. But try telling Demi Vollering that 4 seconds don't matter...

The truth is that UAE made quite a few mistakes, and they gave away time that could be crucial for Jonas Vingegaard. In a stage where nothing should have happened, the Dane gained 4 seconds and largely offset his losses in the time trial. Every second, with Vingo showing signs of weakness, was worth its weight in gold.

On the other hand, it is worth mentioning how unfair the Vuelta a España is being to Movistar Team. We will analyse this in more depth when the race is over, but Orluis Aular's third place in stage 19 is the eighth blow to the team.

Instead of throwing in the towel before the start due to the absence of Enric Mas, instead of throwing in the towel due to Pablo Castrillo's injury, instead of throwing in the towel due to Javier Romo's injury caused by a pro-Palestinian protester, Movistar Team has never given up, and it is not fair that it will leave the race without any victories.

Joao Almeida and UAE were probably affected by the boredom of the stage. Because let’s be honest, today’s stage was boring. Very boring and quite disappointing, because I think we were all expecting much more from the riders. So they got too distracted when there were bonus seconds up for grabs.

And that was a mistake, because Vingegaard was paying attention and increased his lead in a very simple way. In normal circumstances, 4 seconds in a Gran Tour should not have much relevance, but race situation is extremely tight between Jonas and Joao, and 4 seconds might actually become decisive.

UAE were caught sleeping not only once but twice. We have long talked about how this would not happen if Pogacar was riding, the team is radically different without him. In an area where echelons were expected to happen, Visma tried their luck and UAE didn’t immediately followed. They were lucky because there were very few riders in the front group and there was an Astana helping them to chase, or else the outcome could have been much different.

Not much can be said about the final sprint. Even if it was uphill, it was not hard enough to rule Phlipsen out, and he just won easily. Mads Pedersen looked very strong, it was his best sprint at the Vuelta so far and he was actually close to beating Jasper, but it was not enough. Some reports suggested he had been sick the past days, and if that is true, I wouldn’t mind getting the same illness.

I cannot understand why other teams do not try something different to either surprise Alpecin or prevent a bunch sprint. I already said some stages ago that the lack of ambition to form a big breakaway makes no sense, and I just reaffirm it today.

Only seven teams have won so far out of 23, which is less than 33%, and they are really running out of time. Today was literally the perfect day to make a strong break to prevent a bunch sprint, as only Alpecin would be interested in chasing, but they are missing two riders. Instead, everyone seemed content with the obvious outcome: small break, final sprint and Phlipsen winning.