BORA-hansgrohe saw leaders Cian Uijtdebroeks and Aleksandr Vlasov stay in seventh and eighth place after stage eighteen, but things did not get along perfectly between the two along the way. Uijtdebroeks reacted with surprise at Sporza when he was asked about an attack attempt by his fellow leader during the stage.
Vlasov, who is almost a minute behind his Belgian teammate, went out with Nico Denz (also BORA-hansgrohe) before the final climb, which was not communicated via communication or the like. "For me it was a surprise. He suddenly came from behind me. I was not aware," said the young Belgian. "I'm still young and I'm the easiest to catch, but even though I wasn't aware, we were still able to control well. We're still here," he looks at it positively afterwards.
The ever-cheerful Uijtdebroeks, like Vlasov, ultimately lost time to the six men ahead of them in the rankings. "The attack was good, because I was sitting in an armchair and didn't have to do anything. But on the other hand, that made it even harder. So I don't know if it was that ideal for us. We lacked that little bit of strength to be with the first group, but we kept our positions. That's positive."
Yet the young climber could not hide the fact that he did not fully understand the move of Vlasov, who was one place behind him. "When we were together again, I told him: 'Now we're going to work together, hey. We're not going to attack each other.' Otherwise, Joao Almeida would ride away," Uijtdebroeks refers to the Portuguese from UAE-Team Emirates, number nine in the general ranking of this Vuelta.
🇪🇸 #LaVuelta23 💬 Cian Uijtdebroeks: “The feeling was still ok. I have to say that it was a pretty good day in that I arrived at the finish in the GC group. Today’s stage was actually not so easy because the ascent was shorter and quite steep, so it was more explosive..." [cont]
