Wout Poels is very good at the Angliru. The 3 times he has climbed it in the Vuelta a España he has been a protagonist. In 2011 he was second on the stage behind Juan José Cobo. However, as the Spaniard was sanctioned for doping, the victory years later went to him.
In 2017, in Alberto Contador's last great victory, he pulled Chris Froome and almost spoiled the day for the Madrid native. Today, he tore the peloton apart, leaving the group completely broken with Mikel Landa and the 3 Jumbo-Visma only on his wheel. Bahrain - Victorious has not gotten the win, but they were not overly far.
"Unfortunately today we couldn't win, I think it was a good opportunity, but with Mikel on GC we had to give everything," he said. "The whole team was very good, it was a nice day. It's very hard to race against them, but if you don't try you never win, I think the team did a great job, Mikel has moved up some places in the standings, so it was a nice day in the end."
The work did overall benefit the team, Poels himself rode to fifth on the day despite his work, whilst Mikel Landa rode from seventh to fifth in the overall classification, very close to Juan Ayuso - the best out of the riders who are not part of Jumbo-Visma.
🇳🇱 @WoutPoels acelera al frente del grupo de favoritos y hace sufrir a 🇪🇸 @juann_ayuso. El ❤️líder sigue al frente. 🇳🇱 @WoutPoels accelerates to the front of the favourites and makes 🇪🇸 @juann_ayuso suffer. The ❤️líder is still at the front. #LaVuelta23
