Tronchon takes advantage of Visma’s slip and wins the stage of the Vuelta in the ‘sprint’

From the Visma team, good and the best was expected, a laboratory team that had given two clinics in the final sprints of this Vuelta stage, always with Brennan as the spearhead. But a lapse, perhaps overconfidence, as well as a wrong strategy to balance merits —Brennan, winner of two stages, acted as a lead-out instead of delivering the final blow; and Van Aert’s legs were not enough— led Bastien Tronchon to the sky who, with grit, clenched jaws, proud and eager pedaling, celebrated his great victory. One born from chaos and Visma’s terrible blunder.

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It happens that this is now the Vuelta, a mess, because teams recalibrate their bets, now that the fight has shifted from second place to eyeing the laurel with desire, now that Pogacar is no longer in the race, operated on Monday for his collarbone, also stable from a vertebra fracture, already thinking about the World Championship —September 27—, although it seems unlikely, though not impossible in a rider who is a prodigy of nature. For that, however, there is still time and the Spanish tour continues, with Mas as firm leader, since on the day after Pogi he took the stage victory, the best in the mountains, the strongest of the terrestrials, also the first Spanish win in the competition, although he had four podiums in the Vuelta. But that fight, for the crown, will be decided in the mountain stages and also in the remaining time trial. Not in a stage like Alcaraz, a town that is a nod to the Renaissance with its stately castle, surrounded by nature and full of walks for hikers’ enjoyment, to Elche de la Sierra, flat landscapes dotted with climbs, rather arid terrain, limestone rock, sprinkled in any case with notes of green, trees and fields. And, in the background, a sprint.

The bravest tried a breakaway right after leaving Alcaraz, but the peloton, for a day rebellious, decided not to give so much leeway. Or so it seemed because shortly after a septet put distance: Dversnes (Uno-X), Paleni (FDJ), Gogl (Alpecin), Sütterlin (Jayco), Weiss (Tudor), Sinuhé Fernández (Burgos) and Iván Cobo (Kern Pharma). A whole tribute to Don Quixote and his fight against the windmills, a stage through Albacete lands. However, the Visma team did not want to leave too much room for hope and imagination, counting on Van Aert and Brennan as the big candidates for the finish that was coming, a slope, an exercise of power and endurance, five kilometers climbing uphill. Cofidis intended the same, energized since Coquard won the last sprint. Work that paid off, because although Dunbar (Q36.5) first, and then Dversnes and Gogl, tried to win over Rocinante, Quixotic delusions of grandeur, the peloton, already in combustion, regrouped with three kilometers to go to the finish line.

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The drums and trumpets sounded, a warning of what was to come. Teams were showing elbows and teeth, determined to put their sprinters on the starting ramp. But no one had their way and Fedorov (Astana) and Azparren (Q36.5) launched the pulse to the peloton, absorbed just meters from the finish, but enough to disrupt any strategy. And Tronchon emerged, the smartest in the class facing Visma’s indecision and Van Aert’s lack of legs, the one who won when no one expected it.

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General Classification

posrider	Team	Time
1 Bastien Tronchon	CGF	4h:07:41
2 Magnus Cort	UXM	+00:00
3 Thibau Nys	LTK	+00:00
4 Wout van Aert	TVL	+00:00
5 Alessandro Romele	XAT	+00:00
6 Xabier Azparren	PQT	+00:00
7 Finn Fisher-Black	RBH	+00:00
8 Orluis Aular	MOV	+00:00
9 Jordan Labrosse	DCD	+00:00
10 Hugo Hofstetter	NSN	+00:00

posrider	Team	Time
1 Enric Mas	MOV	32h:41:44
2 Primoz Roglic	RBH	+01:18
3 Felix Gall	DCD	+01:39
4 Oscar Onley	IGD	+02:20
5 Richard Carapaz	EFE	+03:26
6 Mattias Skjelmose	LTK	+03:55
7 Sepp Kuss	TVL	+04:09
8 Harold Tejada	XAT	+04:39
9 Gregor Mühlberger	DCD	+07:33
10 Jakob Omrzel	TBV	+08:05

See full classification