00:01It's time for the first big mountain stage of this Vuelta, with the summit finish in Andorra.
00:06And things are hotting up between Visma Lisabike and UAE Team Emirates.
00:10Visma's Jonas Vingagar is back in the red jersey,
00:13but he has three riders from UAE on his tail after their victory in the team time trial.
00:21We have to be super careful.
00:23I mean, Soler is always a danger man in the Vuelta.
00:28He's always incredibly strong and he's not afraid to risk it from a long ways out to attack.
00:38So we have to especially keep an eye on him and then of course in the final with Ayuso and Almeida.
00:46We're not really three behind Jonas, just two, Juan and João.
00:50I'm up there because of the circumstances of the race,
00:52but it's good because I can take advantage of any movement.
00:55I think the whole peloton knows the roads of Andorra, so let's see how the final goes today.
01:02Even if several GC contenders have lost time, the gaps aren't really big enough yet to think about getting into breakaways.
01:08Last year's runner-up, Ben O'Connor, who's 52 seconds down on Vingagar, talks us through the final climb up to Pau.
01:14It's probably harder than the average gradient suggests.
01:17You always have the altitude I guess as well, but yeah, it is pretty rampy and it is actually quite steep before the final two kilometres.
01:26So yeah, it can go either way where the difference is on the steep part or go in the final two kilometres when it's a little bit less steep actually.
01:36In recent years, Andorra has become a major hub for professional cyclists and plenty of the riders at this Vuelta caught it home,
01:46so they will know exactly what to expect today.
01:49Three and a half thousand metres of climbing with the first Cat 1s of this race, the Cuillado de Tosses,
01:54and the final climb up to Pau, which is 9.6 kilometres at 6.3%.
01:59It is their first proper test for the riders who want to win this Vuelta.
02:09Ten riders got into the breakaway, including Louis Fafaka from Sudau Quick-Step, or T-Rex Quick-Step as they have been renamed for this race.
02:16The Belgian taking ten points early on to become the virtual king of the mountains, dislodging the overnight leader, Joel Nicolaou.
02:23Among the other riders up at the front were Pablo Castillo and Jay Vine, both two-time stage winners at the Vuelta,
02:30plus Bruno Armouray and Lorenzo Fortunato.
02:33T-Rex and EF Education Easy Post both had two men in the move, and for the time being,
02:39the Visma-led peloton didn't seem too concerned about bringing them back.
02:47With 75 kilometres to go, the gap was out to over four minutes.
02:51After some early showers, the roads were starting to dry out, and the rain gear was coming off,
02:56although there was a good chance of more wet conditions in the final.
03:00The best-placed man on GC at the front was Torstein Train from Bahrain Victorious,
03:05who began the day 58 seconds down on Vingegaard.
03:08The Norwegian becoming the virtual race leader, although Armouray was only four seconds further back.
03:14In the long valley leading to Andorra, it became apparent that the peloton were happy to let the breakaway contest the stage win,
03:22and Vingegaard was happy to let go of red.
03:24The gap creeping up to over five minutes, with the average speed still over 44 kilometres an hour.
03:30By the time they crossed into Andorra, the breakaway led by six and a half minutes.
03:40Their maximum gap was 6.42, and so the peloton finally decided to up the tempo a bit.
03:45Over the next few kilometres, the ten leaders lost around a minute,
03:49but the stage was still very much in their hands as they reached the penultimate climb, La Comilla.
03:54Short and steep this one, 4.2Ks at 8%.
03:58In the peloton, Raul Garcia Piano attacked,
04:01although the leader of Arkea B&B Hotels didn't go far.
04:05No attacks yet in the front group, with their lead now cut to four minutes.
04:09While Armouray was struggling a bit as they made their way up the climb,
04:12while further back, Visma was still pacing the bunch.
04:15Jay Vine then made his move, not on the climb, but on the descent just after it,
04:22catching his fellow escapees by surprise.
04:25The Australian pulling 50 seconds clear before the final climb to Pau.
04:33With the Aussies soaring away to victory, the biggest question now
04:36was who would end up in the red jersey, train or Armouray.
04:40The two riders were still separated by that minuscule gap of four seconds.
04:46Further back, Lidl Trek had decided to go on the offensive,
04:50upping the tempo for Giulio Ciccone.
04:52Even if the stage was now beyond the GC group, there could still be some fireworks.
04:58With just under 5K to go, Vine still led by 50 seconds,
05:02while Train had managed to drop Armouray in his quest for red.
05:05It wasn't all good news for UAE though, as one of their two leaders, Juan Ayuso,
05:13was dropped around 6km from the line.
05:16The first major summit finish, spelling the end of his GC ambitions.
05:21Now we see the first move from the peloton behind.
05:29Giulio Ciccone strikes to gain some time on his rivals.
05:34Jonas Vingegor acute to that move.
05:36The red jersey gets himself right onto the wheel of the Italian from Lidl Trek.
05:40Well, Ciccone giving it a good go,
05:46but the gradients weren't really steep enough to open up big gaps.
05:49That being said, a group containing Santiago Buetrago, Ben O'Connor,
05:54Mikel Lander and David Godu would lose around 30 seconds.
05:59The rest of the GC favourites coming in together,
06:02as Train prepared to shrug on the red jersey,
06:04and Vine celebrated another Vuelta success.
06:10Grand Tour stage victory number three for the Australian.
06:15His first Grand Tour stage victory in the colours of UAE Team Emirates XRG.
06:19And he wins the first mountain test.
06:24Well, Jay Vine has been deliberately losing time since the start of this Vuelta
06:28because he knew the breakaway was his best chance of success.
06:31The Australian putting in a flawless ride to take his tenth career win.
06:35Local knowledge helping the Andorra resident to secure a third Vuelta stage victory.
06:42I know these roads pretty well. I'm from just down the hill,
06:46so Carmela is my favourite climb in all of Andorra.
06:49And I would have normally liked to have done it way harder.
06:53But, you know, with the headwind,
06:57it was hard to get the guys to really pull through and make it really hard.
07:02So I decided to go at the top.
07:04And with the wet descent, I know the descent really well.
07:07And I thought, OK, this is my chance to get away,
07:11and then there's no funny business. It's just man away, man away.
07:15UAE doubling up after yesterday's team time trial,
07:18with Vine beating Train by 54 seconds.
07:20Fortunato, Amurai and Castillo complete the top five with the peloton at 4 minutes 19.
07:27Train becomes the leader of a Grand Tour or indeed any race for the first time in his career.
07:31The Norwegian leads Amurai by 31 seconds.
07:34Vine also takes the polka dot jersey which he won last year.
07:38Defending it could become an objective,
07:40depending on how much freedom he is given by the team.
07:43And we have a new white jersey in Giulio Perizzari
07:46after Ayuso lost seven and a half minutes to the GC group.
07:50The climbing continues tomorrow as we head back into Spain
07:55for another summit finish on Huesca La Magia.
07:58Join us for that on Friday and thanks for watching.
