"He's very strong, I'm happy to have been on his wheel" - João Almeida on Jonas Vingegaard and La Farrapona

João Almeida put Jonas Vingegaard on the ropes at the Alto de l'Angliru but was unable to do so at La Farrapona. Perhaps the strong wind changed the Portuguese climber's mind, but at the second high mountain stage of the race there was a truce between the two main GC favourites who remained virtually in the same position at the end of the day.

"Impressive. The plan initially was not to put Marc [Soler] in the breakaway, but we decided it was a good idea especially because there was a headwind at the finish and maybe we were going to need him at the end. We had nothing to lose, we tried to win and we gave it our best shot."

UAE had Soler and Mikkel Bjerg in front, with the Dane playing a role in UAE's plan to make the race hard. On the Alto de San Lorenzo there was the start for an offensive, which used up all of the team's riders - except for Soler - but culminated in nothing, as there was no attack from the second overall on the final climb.

In the end both followed Jai Hindley in the final minutes of the ascent and then sprinted it out. He underplayed his own abilities, saying this of Vingegaard: "He's very strong, I'm happy to have been on his wheel".

Almeida remains second in the overall classification of the Vuelta a España just 48 seconds behind Vingegaard. Tomorrow, Sunday's 15th stage has mountains only at the start, so an breakaway is likely to succeed and the GC action will continue on the third week.

On Tuesday, on stage 16, a high finish in Castro de Herville, where hostilities may return before the three decisive days that remain: the climb to the Alto de El Morredero, the 27-kilometer time trial in Valladolid and the fearsome Bola del Mundo in the penultimate stage.