CYCLING – TEAM Bahrain Victorious star Santiago Buitrago took his second runner-up finish of this year’s La Vuelta a Espana yesterday.
The Colombian came just shy of the victory in the grand tour’s 19th stage following another strong performance from the kingdom’s squad in the mountains.
The 210.8-kilometre leg, from Velez-Malaga to Peñas Blancas, featured more than 4,000 metres of climbing and was decided from a 16-rider breakaway that included both Buitrago and Spanish teammate Pau Miquel.
Miquel produced a huge effort in support of his fellow-squad member before Buitrago made his move on the final climb.
He pushed clear in the closing kilometres, but was caught and passed by Eddie Dunbar of Pinarello-Q36.5 Pro Cycling Team inside the final 400 metres.
Dunbar went on to win the leg, with Buitrago finishing a mere 14 seconds behind and Dunbar’s teammate Thomas Gloag completing the stage podium at 23 seconds back.
To go along with his runner-up placing, Buitrago retained the King of the Mountains (KOM) blue-and-white polkadot jersey ahead of another decisive mountain stage today.
He improved to 78 points and is now 38 ahead of Wout van Aeert of Team Visma-Lease a Bike.
“Stage 19 and another second place – above all, I want to thank Pau, who did an exceptional job,” said Buitrago. “I couldn’t have asked any more from him, and it’s a shame I couldn’t reward his work with the victory.
“Personally, it’s a little sad to come so close to raising my arms again, but this shows our spirit and that we will keep fighting until the end.
‘We still have the [KOM] jersey, and tomorrow is a very hard stage. We hope to recover well and try again.”
Amongst Bahrain Victorious’ contenders, Slovenian Jakob Omrzel remained their top man in the general classification, staying in sixth – seven minutes behind overall race leader Enric Mas of Movistar Team.
Omrzel is also second in the best young rider rankings, a minute from Oscar Onley of Netcompany Ineos.
This season’s La Vuelta a Espana continues today with the 20th and penultimate leg, set to cover 186.8km of the total distance of 3,209.6km in the three-week grand tour.
&uuid=(email))