Vuelta a Espana: Evenepoel cracks and sheds time to Roglic and Mas as Richard Carapaz soars to dramatic win at Sierra de la Pandera

Stage 14 of the Vuelta a Espana was perhaps overshadowed by the queen stage on the following day, however it delivered serious drama as Remco Evenepoel showed signs of weakness in the final climb and lost important time on his rivals, whilst INEOS Grenadiers' Richard Carapaz took his second consecutive summit finish win. 

The first half of the stage were mostly flat, and have seen a long battle for the breakaway to go up the road, leading to a fast start and a short gap that was allowed to grow as there was little road left. With around 70 kilometers to go ten riders went up the road: Richard Carapaz, Alexey Lutsenko, Filippo Conca, Marco Brenner, Luis Leõn Sánchez, Mads Pedersen, Raúl García Pierna, Bruno Armirail, Kenny Elissonde and Clément Champoussin.

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The gap topped at around ten minutes with Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl Team making sure the peloton was within sight of a possible win. In the ascent to Los Villares the action begun, with the breakaway losing some riders as Alexey Lutsenko launched an initial move. Sánchez attacked towards the summit, with Richard Carapaz bridging across at the bottom of the ascent to Sierra de la Pandera - whilst in the peloton Jumbo-Visma and INEOS Grenadiers set the pace for the GC riders.

Champoussin and Conca bridged across to the front, as Chris Hasper set a strong pace in the GC group which thinned it out and reduced the gap to around minute and a half with five kilometers to go. Primoz Roglic shortly after attacked. With less than four kilometers to go Evenepoel cracked, as Miguel Ángel López and Enric Mas attacked off the group and serious gaps started to be made on the road, as Carapaz went solo off the front and tried to take on a second stage win.

Just outside the final kilometer Roglic dropped Mas, working together with López to try and bridge over to Carapaz. They were not successful however as the Ecuadorian took his second win of the race. López and Roglic closed the podium, taking 28 seconds on Enric Mas and 48 on Remco Evenepoel who kept the race lead.

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