Miguel Ángel López takes Movistar’s first Grand Tour win of the year atop Gamoniteiru, with amazing work from teammates Erviti, Oliveira, Rojas and Mas.
The five riders from the Telefonica-backed squad – backed before the stage by Telefónica CEO José María Álvarez-Pallete and Telefónica Hispanoamérica CEO Alfonso Gómez, who spent the day with the team – looked like way more over the tough course in Asturias. Imanol Erviti, part of the early break, was caught by the bunch into a perfect place, after the descent of La Cobertoria (Cat-1), to do a five-star work alongside Nelson Oliveira and ruined the escape’s chances.
José Joaquín Rojas protected both López and Enric Mas – 3rd at the finish – en route to the final climb. And the good legs from Enric and ‘Superman’ gave the Colombian confidence to attack with 4km to go, with no opposition from the other race contenders, and win ahead of GC leader Roglic (TJV) and second-placed Mas.
The Movistar Team thus increases its list of wins to 32 this season -that’s 14 for the men’s outfit in 2021- and no less than 121 Grand Tour stage victories for the Abarca Sports organisation since 1980. Mas and López -who remains 3rd overall behind the Spaniard- now have more than one minute and a half’s advantage for the podium with three days to go, all of them in Galicia. For now, they will enjoy themselves for a few hours after a victory which pays back so many bad moments and suffering for everyone in the Telefónica-backed squad in recent times.
Miguel Ángel López: “It was a long time for me already since I wanted to win again in La Vuelta. It’s been four years since my last success here, and achieving it on the Queen stage makes me so happy. I do this with so much commitment, ambition, and love for my wife and my son. I’m so thankful to my team-mates for their work. We’re only five now in the race, and we’re missing Carlos, Alejandro and Jacobs so much. However, everyone still here puts a lot of work to make up for the losses. It’s been so beautiful to pay the team-mates back for this. The efforts from Imanol, Nelson, Rojillas, Enric… they were magnificent. This means a lot to us. Only those who are here, inside the team, know how hard it is, how much you suffer every day. Without the sponsors, the staff, the soigneurs, sports directors, our manager Eusebio – it wouldn’t be possible. This can’t be about talking and criticising so much all the time. We offered some good spectacle today, and we go back home with this beautiful victory, so happy about the brilliant work done by all of my team-mates. We also knew this day was important with regards to the GC, we had to take full advantage from it and this will keep us more calm before the next few days heading into Santiago.”
José María Álvarez-Pallete (Telefónica CEO): “This is a day to congratulate the whole Movistar Team for their victory in such a fabulous stage. Miguel Ángel crowned a splendid job from the whole team, and we must take our hats off for what he did. I hope all fans have enjoyed the magnificent spectacle we’ve seen today, over a beautiful route, also a really hard one, where all riders gave it their all, or even better. This is also a victory by Alejandro, Johan and Carlos, who are now recovering from injuries. There’s still some stages left in this Vuelta, and the whole team will continue to do their best and try it until the very end. This team fully represents our values, and they’ve got all of our confidence and support.”
Enric Mas: “I’m so happy, for Miguel Ángel and the whole team, who completed a fantastic job. Imanol was already in the early break, then pushed so hard at the peloton with Nelson, Rojillas took care of us until the last climb – and that attack from Miguel Ángel was great. We knew that, if it was me who attacked, the most likely thing would be Primoz going after me, while Miguel Ángel would be given that sort of margin to go for the stage. Once he jumped, even if I wanted to also try, I had to respect my team-mate and the whole team for their incredible job. We’ve won this stage and we’re leaving so happy with that. Saturday’s stage -tomorrow’s will also be one to keep an eye at – will be again hard, and anything can happen. We must try and get as much rest as possible tonight, see what happens tomorrow and then think about the weekend.”
2021 Vuelta a Espana: Stage 18 Brief Results
- Miguel Angel Lopez (Movistar Team) at 4h’ 41’21”
- Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) at 14″
- Enric Mas (Movistar) at 20″
- Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) at 22″
- Jack Haig (Bahrain Victorious) at 58″
General Classification After Stage 18
- Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) at 73h 24’25”
- Enric Mas (Movistar) at 2’30”
- Miguel Angel Lopez (Movistar) at 2’53”
- Jack Haig (Bahrain Victorious) at 4’36”
- Egan Bernal (INEOS Grenadiers) at 4’43”
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