CYCLING – TEAM Bahrain Victorious rider Santiago Buitrago added to his lead yesterday in the King of the Mountains (KOM) ranking following the 13th stage of the 81st La Vuelta a Espana.
The Colombian was the best finisher for the kingdom’s squad in the 192.8-kilometre leg.
He placed 27th as part of a trailing group that was 50 seconds behind stage winner Wout van Aert of Team Visma-Lease a Bike.
Buitrago extended his advantage in keeping the blue-and-white polka dot KOM jersey to 18 points. He is on 58, while van Aert follows on 40.
Amongst the other Bahrain Victorious riders yesterday, Spaniard Pello Bilbao came 33rd, Slovenian Jakob Omrzel and Hungarian Attila Valter were 44th and 45th, respectively, and Dutchman Mathijs Paasschens finished 54th.
The squad was rounded out by Slovenian Roman Ermakov in 72nd, Spaniard Pau Miquel in 77th, and Matevz Govekar, also from Slovenia, in 146th.
Omrzel, who claimed an historic victory in stage 12 on Thursday, remained as Bahrain Victorious’ top competitor on the general classification in sixth.
He is just under five minutes behind overall race leader Enric Mas of Movistar Team.
Omrzel also stayed second in the best young rider standings, where he is 30 seconds behind Oscar onley of Netcompany Ineos.
This year’s 21-stage Vuelta a Espana continues today with the 154.5km 14th stage, part of the elite men’s road race’s total distance of 3,296.6km.
The event follows the other two grand tours of this international cycling season, which were the Giro d’Italia in May and the Tour de France in July.
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