00:01Welcome to the third and final week of La Vuelta 25. We resume with a punchy 16th outing
00:07to Moss featuring a summit finish on Castro de Herville. As we approach the business end
00:12of this race, Visma and UAE could give the breakaway some freedom today, unless UAE want
00:17to continue their remarkable winning streak.
00:19In the third week you always have different surprises, you have guys riding for their
00:24positions in the GC and on a course like this where you can make a lot of difference if
00:31you have good legs and attack at the right time.
00:33We're in North West Spain, close to the Portuguese border, which means that teammates Ivo Oliveira
00:39and Joao Almeida will be getting plenty of support.
00:42In Asturias and everywhere we have a lot of Portuguese flags and today it seems even more
00:47and it feels like a tour of Portugal honestly. It's extra motivation, we want to go for the
00:54red jersey. We don't know if it's today but every day is a chance and we have to be prepared.
01:00The final is similar to stage 20 of La Vuelta 21 where Clément Champassant took a surprise
01:05victory. Tom Pidcock was there that day and has some idea what to expect.
01:11I remember the stage I started feeling better and I was on the front. The team tried something
01:17so yeah but I remember it being quite a hard day, quite selective so yeah definitely it's
01:24going to be yeah especially you know after the rest of yesterday it will be it will be hard.
01:29There's a real classics feel to stage 16 which features three and a half thousand metres of
01:39elevation gain over 168 kilometres. There are officially four climbs including the category
01:45one Alto da Groba and the final ascent above Moss 8.2 k's at 5.2 percent with maximum gradients
01:52of 16 percent. Only a strong rider can take today's stage honours.
01:57Well it took around 50 kilometres for the day's breakaway to form. Some riders still had a
02:06bit of energy in the legs even in the third week of a Grand Tour and 17 of them got the
02:11green light from the peloton to go up the road.
02:13Well Visma Lisa Baik had kept a close eye on the early moves especially with their Belgian
02:19powerhouse Victor Campenarts not starting today. Gianmarco Garofoli who had a strong second
02:25week for T-Rex Quickstep also withdrew with illness.
02:30The best placed rider in the breakaway was Egan Bernal over 15 minutes down on Jonas Vingegaard.
02:35He was joined by Bob Jungels, the last survivor from the breakaway on Angleru and Kevin Vermarker
02:41who was up there for the sixth time at this Vuelta.
02:45There were also five Frenchmen plus aggressive riders like Andrea Baggioli, Sean Quinn, Mikel
02:50Landa and Jefferson Cepeda. And while there were no Visma riders, UAE had got Marc Soler
02:56across in their bid for an eighth stage win. The Spaniard looking to double up at this Vuelta
03:02like his teammates Jay Vine and Juan Ayuso.
03:06Well after a rapid start the gap was soon out to nearly five minutes. The breakaway starting
03:12what was on paper the hardest climb of the day, the Alto de Groba, of 11km at 5.4%.
03:20Groupama FDJ were the best represented at the front with three riders, Rudy Mala, Clément
03:25Brazzafonso and Brio Roland targeting the team's second win of the race.
03:29On paper it's a stage that suits me and the whole team in fact, so we're very ambitious
03:35today. I don't think the favourites will be fighting for the stage win, or at least
03:39they hope they won't be. It's going to be a tough day because a lot of riders will be
03:43thinking the same thing I am. It's going to be very hard to get into the break.
03:48Well by now the gap was enough to suggest that the breakaway riders would indeed be going
03:57all the way, but the group was still a bit too big for some.
04:00Looks like it could be an attack now from the leading group of riders. Lander's decided that
04:08he wants to just test things out a little bit. Onto this climb, 2.8km to go to the top.
04:15Well Lander going on the attack as a bit of rain began to fall. And the Spaniard would
04:22be joined by four more riders by the time they got over the summit. Bernal, Brazzafonso,
04:27Nico Denz and Brio Roland. So five riders now in the lead, with the peloton over six minutes
04:36back. The riders then embarking on a long descent towards the third of the day's climb, the Alto
04:42de Prado, which came shortly after the intermediate sprints. Even if it was only a Category 2 climb,
04:50the Prado boasted some killer gradients, over 20%.
04:54But they proved to be too much for Nico Denz, who was dropped, and soon caught by the chasing
05:03duo of Soler and Finlay Pickering.
05:05Roland was also struggling. He couldn't stay with Lander and Bernal in the final part of
05:10the climb. His teammate though, Brazzafonso, was holding on.
05:13Further back, Bahrain Victorious were pacing the peloton because Bernal was threatening Torstein
05:18trains placed in the top ten. It was quickly whittled down to a red jersey group, with Almeida
05:24isolated and others dropping back. With the front trio out of reach, Soler decided to sit
05:29up and wait for his leader Almeida so he'd have some help on the final climb. But the radio
05:34announcement changed everything.
05:37The finish is going to be with eight kilometres to go. That's where the stage winner and the
05:40time is going to be taken for the general classification because of a protest. And so that's going to
05:45have a huge change on the road.
05:48When Brazzafonso punctured at the front though, there was no quick fix. The Frenchman losing
06:03any chance of going for the stage win, which would now be decided at the bottom of the climb,
06:08eight kilometres from the original finish line. It would be a two-horse race between Lander
06:12and Bernal, with Ronan chasing at more than 20 seconds. The Spaniard and the Colombian gearing up
06:17for the final sprint.
06:19And Egan Bernal as they make their way towards the finish line. Where is the line? There it is.
06:25Bernal opens up the sprint on the left-hand side as he goes for the finish.
06:30Mikel Lander in second place. It's going to be Egan Bernal. Egan Bernal comes back in La Vuelta.
06:38Bernal taking his first World Tour victory since 2021 when he triumphed overall at the Giro d'Italia.
06:48A big moment for the Colombian, who also won his national road and time trial titles at the start of the year.
06:54The red jersey group came in nearly six minutes down and no major changes.
06:58Vingegaard still leads Almeida by 48 seconds with Giulio Pellizzari up to fifth.
07:03There will no doubt be bigger gaps tomorrow on the Alto del Moradero. Join us for that on Wednesday.
07:09And thanks for watching.
