Eddie Dunbar soars to spectacular second Vuelta a Espana stage win on thrilling stage 20; Podium fight still open heading into final time trial

The penultimate stage of the 2024 Vuelta a Espana was a thriller. In the end, Eddie Dunbar took it, his second stage win of this Grand Tour whilst the likes of Enric Mas, Primoz Roglic, Richard Carapaz and Ben O'Connor largely cancelled each other out.

With much still to be decided before the Grand Tour reached Madrid, a strong group of 10 got themselves up the road early on stage 20. Included in the breakaway were the three main challengers for the King of the Mountains jersey, Marc Soler, Jay Vine and Pablo Castrillo. With Jack Haig at more than 42 minutes down being the best placed GC wise, there was no threat in that regard, in the lead group.

With the INEOS Grenadiers setting a fierce pace on the front of the peloton on third categorised climb of the day, Primoz Roglic was suddenly feeling very alone as both Daniel Martinez and Aleksandr Vlasov were struggling with over 100km still to go. At the top of the climb meanwhile, Jay Vine took maximum points ahead of teammate Marc Soler, taking control of the polka-dots in the process.

On the fourth climb however, Soler went solo himself, taking maximum KOM points, meaning things at the top of the classification were dead level heading into the final two climb between Soler and Vine. As the UAE Team Emirates duo regrouped alongside Clement Berthet, Marco Frigo and Pablo Castrillo on the penultimate climb, the peloton were closing in, around a minute and a half down heading into the final 45km.

As soon as the slopes of the penultimate climb began, Soler, Castrillo and Frigo were almost immediately dropped from the lead group with Vine looking incredibly strong. Soon after though, the all were swept up by a Soudal - Quick-Step led GC group, working to improve Mikel Landa's overall position. It was making a difference too with Mattias Skjelmose and Carlos Rodriguez put into difficulty. Before the top of the climb though, Vine, who had hung on after being caught attacked again, taking points and the lead in the King of the Mountains classification.

It was Vine's teammate, Pavel Sivakov who attacked most fiercely however, entering the final 10km more than a minute clear of the remainder of the peloton. Behind the UAE man however, Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe were putting concerns of illness within the team after the abandons of Martinez, Gamper and Denz to bed with Lipowitz and Roglic controlling the bunch with a strong pace, winding things up and closing the gap to Sivakov in the process.

With 3.5km to go, Sivakov had company at the front of the race from the counter-attacking Eddie Dunbar, still around 15-20 seconds clear of the Red Jersey group. The Irishman didn't wait too long though, before attacking again and moving clear solo. Behind, Ben O'Connor had been gapped by the group of Roglic, Mas, Carapaz and David Gaudu.

Through the flamme rouge though, Dunbar was still 10 seconds clear and as the chase paused, O'Connor and Landa got back into contact with the Red Jersey group. Fighting through the crowds and the fog, Dunbar powered again inside the final 300m, soaring to his second stage win of the Grand Tour. Behind, Enric gapped Roglic for second and third.

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