In a nail-biting finish, Michael Woods beat his breakaway companions on the final climb to emerge victorious on stage 13 of the Vuelta a España 2024 after 176 kilometers between Lugo and Puerto de Ancares, a first-category climb.
The experienced Israel-Premier Tech rider took the solo victory on the steep finish. Second came Swiss rider Mauro Schmid (Team Jayco AlUla) at 45 seconds and third came Spanish rider Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates) at 1:11 from the winner.
As for the favorites, Primoz Roglic (Red Bull – BORA – hansgrohe) was by far the best rider overall, the Slovenian came in 16th place more than 10 minutes behind Woods, but took a lot of time off the leader Ben O’Connor, who continues to lead with a lead of more than a minute.
The day began with a move of 24 riders. The breakaway included Wout van Aert (Visma | Lease a Bike), Jay Vine (UAE Emirates), Brandon McNulty (UAE Emirates), Marc Soler (UAE Emirates), Kasper Asgreen (Soudal Quick-Step), Sam Oomen (lidl-trek), Kim Heiduk (INEOS Grenadiers), Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Luca Vergallito (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Michael Woods (Israel-Premier Tech), Dylan Teuns (Israel-Premier Tech), Victor Campenaers (Lotto Dstny), Sylvain Moniquet (Lotto Dstny), and Mauro Schmid (Jayco AlUla).
The first scoring climb of the day was third category, but something remarkable happened there. Van Aert was the first to crest the summit and thus took over the lead in the mountains classification. The three-time stage winner is 13 points ahead of Australian Jay Vine.
On the Alto O Portelo the leading group disintegrated. Van Aert tried to crown it first, but had to deal with Vine and Soler. However, the two UAE Team Emirates riders took valuable points off him.
Then it was a matter of waiting for the Puerto de Lumeras, (6.6 km at 5.9%), Soler tried to break away from van Aert, but in the last kilometer of the climb Van Aert – thanks to a strong acceleration – went up and over the Spaniard. In this way, the Belgian once again took all the mountain points and thus secured the lead in the blue points classification.
On the descent of the Puerto de Lumeras, McNulty misjudged a turn, after which he and teammate Jay Vine went to the ground, leaving them out of the battle for the stage. The American ended up in the gully, fortunately he was able to continue. The crash caused the lead group to explode, which consisted of Van Aert, Oomen, Schmid, Woods and Soler.
The top five started the final climb of the Puerto de Angaras (7.5 kilometers with an average gradient of 9%). The last five kilometers were the hardest, the gradient did not go below 10 percent. The group of favorites lost more than fifteen minutes.
Immediately at the start of the last five thousand meters, the Swiss champion Schmid accelerated, releasing Van Aert, Oomen and Soler. Woods was the only one to follow him and a few seconds later he caught up and overtook him. The Canadian held on until the end, taking a great victory, his third in the Iberian round.
The Iberian round will continue this Saturday with stage 14 over 200.5 kilometers between Villafranco del Bierzo and Villablino, which includes two categorized mountain prizes.
La Vuelta Ciclista a España (2.UWT)
Results Stage 13 | Lugo – Puerto de Ancares (176 km)
| 1 | Michael Woods | Israel – Premier Tech | 4:19:51 |
| 2 | Mauro Schmid | Team Jayco AlUla | 0:45 |
| 3 | Marc Soler | UAE Team Emirates | 1:11 |
| 4 | Sam Oomen | Lidl – Trek | 1:25 |
| 5 | Wout van Aert | Team Visma | Lease a Bike | 2:56 |
| 6 | Gijs Leemreize | Team dsm-firmenich PostNL | 3:33 |
| 7 | José Félix Parra | Equipo Kern Pharma | 5:19 |
| 8 | Mikel Bizcarra | Euskaltel – Euskadi | 5:38 |
| 9 | Luca Vergalito | Alpecin – Deceuninck | 5:59 |
| 10 | Mathis Le Berre | Arkéa – B&B Hotels | 6:15 |
Ranking General
| 1 | Ben O’Connor | Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team | 52:10:15 |
| 2 | Primož Roglic | Red Bull – BORA – hansgrohe | 1:21 |
| 3 | Enric Mas | Movistar Team | 3:01 |
| 4 | Richard Carapaz | EF Education – EasyPost | 3:13 |
| 5 | Mikel Landa | Soudal Quick-Step | 3:20 |
| 6 | Carlos Rodríguez | INEOS Grenadiers | 4:12 |
| 7 | Florian Lipowitz | Red Bull – BORA – hansgrohe | 4:29 |
| 8 | Felix Gall | Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team | 4:42 |
| 9 | David Gaudu | Groupama – FDJ | 4:44 |
| 10 | Adam Yates | UAE Team Emirates | 5:17 |
Source: Revista Mundo Ciclístico