Extended Highlights - Stage 19 - La Vuelta 2024

onto the first of two key Mountain stages which will help to determine the outcome of this 79th Welter Ben o Conor's been wearing the red jersey since he won stage six but Primos RIT would love to take it off his shoulders today on the alto to mon calvo defense or attack uh defense I guess today's is really really important to be honest it's uh I think tomorrow is a day I'm actually looking forward to um so today's the day where I really have to be my best you know it's only 5 Seconds To Rage you then have uh enri and carad there so the batt the battle for the podium is going to be pretty tight this clim suits him well also the stage has s him to the final uh yeah he won four years ago and uh probably we will try to repeat today but it's depends how the race goes confident yeah pretty much strong we have a good team so yeah we're very confident the battle promises to be intense and not just for the Riders who are eyeing up overall Victory we're going step by step we'll take the last few days as they come today is likely to be an uphill Sprint I would say and that's the kind of finish I like you have to be up there I think there will also be lots of riders trying to spoil the Party by attacking to gain places overall some climbers have already given up their GC Ambitions but that doesn't mean they can't finish this Welter on a high note I would for sure prefer a stage win over a top 10 I mean uh yeah I've I've won the race I've I've also finished in the top 10 before um so yeah trying to win a stage would give me more uh satisfaction but yeah it's also nothing to uh shake your head at being at in top 10 of a Grand Tour stage 19 is all about the final climb up the alto to mon calvoo where rogich won ahead of car pass in 2020 it's 8.6k at an average gradient of 8.9% which is certainly steep enough for gaps of 5 Seconds or more so will oconor still be in Red by the end of the day 5 minutes and 6 seconds 5 seconds for the Riders who are in the Breakaway after several attempts a group of five men went up the road and opened up that 5minute Gap there were two from Anto Mar Wy Vito brat and Simone patii along with Fran mahovich of bahin Victorious Edward plart from Alpa de karik and Isaak Del Toro of UAE team Emirates a team who've been on the attack pretty much every day since the end of the first week one of del Toro's teammates Jay Vine needed some treatment after crashing early in the stage the Australian also hit the deck on stage 13 but he's gritting his teeth after two consecutive dnfs at lav welta the peleton was being led by Red Bull border a hand grower who were making no secret of the fact that they wanted to set this up for RIT the slovenians targeting another win on Mon calvo the average speed remained High over 44 km an hour as they approach the first climb of the day the Puerto DEA a fairly straightforward Affair of 5.2k at 4.8% at this point the Gap to the break was around 3 minutes clearly this wasn't going to be their day there we are we commence the PTO PR at this third categorized climb it's a nice steady climb mahalovich leading the way over the summit with the peleton still at just under 3 minutes Red Bull and Mau star then decided to up the tempo on The Descent causing splits and a bit of panic in the peltin Matias skelm MOA was the biggest name caught on the wrong side of it but his little Trek team went to work and brought things back together the Gap was now down to under 2 minutes five then became four at the front with brat dropping back the bunch had the Breakaway in their sights though as they entered the final 15 km with the final climb soon looming into view the base of the climb is here we're heading for the AL manal the break away were quickly swallowed up as Red Bull border H grower continued to set a furious pace and the rest of the GC group couldn't live with it there is the split the split is gone and it's leaving Richard Carabas to have to close the gap the Red Bull rocket of Martinez and vlasov launching rogl into orbit the Slovenian going solo at the front with 5K remaining further back it was turning into a scrap for the podium and there goes the attack again from enrik mass enrik mass goes the rider who third overall he's trying to break Ben oconor and he's trying to get rid of Richard carass too Mass pulling around 20 seconds clear of carass ok Conor and godu but it didn't look like he had the legs to catch RIT the Slovenian soaring away as the man in red began to suffer the elastic is snapped and Beno could be saying goodbye well he would certainly be saying goodbye to that red jersey as a dominant RIT reached the summit and right now Primos rogl is going to win the stage stage 19 up to the alad de mon Calo and he's going to ride his way into the red jersey into Lara Red Bull spent the whole day teeing it up and Rit finished the job in style making it back-to- back wins on Mon calvo his third win of this Welter in the 15th in total the 34-year-old taking a huge stride towards Landing his fourth overall Crown I'm happy I'm happy with the yeah with the with the way I'm functioning uh and uh definitely happy happy with the guys like I said had some really nice memories from from this climb and yeah didn't disappoint me again beautiful Brit was 46 seconds ahead of godu and scalos are in the end with mass Lander and Rodriguez all within a minute OK Conor at 1 minute 49 with just two stages to go RIT recovers the red jersey that he lost to OK Conor back on stage six he now leads by 154 with mass at 220 no action in the points classification today as long as Kaden Groves makes it safy to Madrid he'll go home in green UAE are in pole position to win the mountains classification with cair orine but there are lots of points available tomorrow so keep an eye on Casto skel mosa has taken white for the first time at this Welter he now leads Rodriguez by just 8 seconds tomorrow there are seven climbs including a CIT finish on peacon Blanco don't miss it join us again on Saturday and thanks for watching