Vuelta a Espana: Remco Evenepoel survives final mountain journey as Richard Carapaz flies into third stage win

Richard Carapaz started the Vuelta a Espana with the goal of winning it, and although he failed to contest the overall classification, he has succeeded wildly as he took his third stage win at the Puerto de Navacerrada. Remco Evenepoel sealed the overall win as he resisted once again the attacks put on by Enric Mas.

The start of the day saw several attacks, with a small group going up the road and getting three minutes of advantage, however with an acceleration in the peloton from the riders waiting for the uphill slopes bringing down the gap quite a lot. Marc Soler bridged across to the front, whilst several groups formed behind and started gaining distance on the peloton.

It was a chaotic first hours of racing, eventually with Marc Soler and Robert Stannard going clear from the rest of the breakaway, and a 24-rider group chasing. With 70 kilometers to go the duo was caught by the peloton, and despite several attacks, the situation remained relatively constant.

At the Puerto de la Morcuera the race was further defined, with Richard Carapaz, Sergio Higuita and Louis Meintjes going clear from the breakaway. The trio went over the summit with just under two minutes of lead over the GC group where Enric Mas attacked the race, as did Miguel ´Ángel López and Juan Ayuso, but all attacks were followed by Remco Evenepoel. As Quick-Step did in the opening climb of the day, at Morcuera Evenepoel kept the race under control.

The trio entered the final ascent to Puerto de Cotos alone, with Meintjes eventually dropped, and Richard Carapaz going solo near the summit of the ascent as the GC group was just around the corner. López and Mas again tried to move in the GC group but with no success, closing much of the gap but seeing little gaps between the Top10 riders, as UAE also looked to keep the group compact to save Juan Ayuso's third place.

Carapaz got a gap of around 25 seconds to the GC group, that then started coming down as Thymen Arensman attacked with three kilometers to go, but the Ecuadorian managed to sustain the gap to take another impressive victory. Arensman survived to second place, with Juan Ayuso sprinting for third place in the main GC group where Remco Evenepoel arrived, and sealed the overall win of the Vuelta.