Wout van Aert won a two-up sprint to seal his first stage win of this Vuelta a Espana at the end of a thrilling, non-stop day of racing.
The Belgian was part of a huge breakaway of 43 riders which jumped clear in the early part of the 192.8km stage from Alumencar, with the two groups splintering before re-merging on the final climb of the day, the category-two Puerto de Granada.
His Visma-Lease a Bike squad had multiple cards to play, with three-time stage winner Matthew Brennan also in the break, while teammate Bruno Armirail played a crucial role in bringing Van Aert back to the front after he slipped into the second group on the road.
The final 30km saw constant attacks between different riders vying for the stage win, with points classification leader Van Aert attacking with 3.5km to go with just Valentin Paret-Peintre able to stick to his wheel.
The pair played a game of cat-and-mouse into the final kilometre before Frenchman Paret-Peintre launched his sprint early as the road kicked uphill, but Van Aert proved too strong on the line in Loja.
Brennan won a sprint from the reduced group for third 24 seconds back to seal a brilliant day for Visma-Lease a Bike, with Van Aert ticking off another of his objectives while his lead in the points classification also looks secure.
“I don’t think I was very popular in that break but I knew I had a superstar behind me,” Brennan said. “We had to take ownership of the race, we put a lot of pressure on the other guys.
“I’m quite speechless for Wout. It’s been a long time coming. To do that work for him today is actually sweeter than a win, so chapeau to him and well done to everyone in the team. I’m really happy that I could do my bit to get him the victory that he deserves in this race.”
Race leader Enric Mas rolled across the line safely in the bunch, and there were no changes to the order of the top eight in the general classification.
In the absence of Tadej Pogacar his all-conquering UAE Team Emirates-XRG squad have looked somewhat lost, rarely threatening for stage wins and down to just four riders by the end of stage 13 after Pavel Sivakov became the latest to abandon.
Their lack of presence in the race since Pogacar’s withdrawal has also meant the Vuelta has no team truly strong enough to control proceedings, leading to an anarchic couple of days with multiple general classification contenders allowed into breakaways.
Jakob Omrzel won stage 12 and moved up to sixth overall in the process after he was allowed into the break, with Lidl-Trek’s Mattias Skjelmose the latest GC rider to capitalise on that lack of control the following day.
The Dane was seventh overall, 7’42” behind Mas at the start of the day, but as the breakaway stretched its lead to five minutes and he shot up the virtual classification Decathlon CMA CGM, the team of third-placed rider Felix Gall, began to panic and came to the front.
In the end Decathlon closed the gap enough to keep the Lidl-Trek rider in seventh place but Skjelmose still gained more than two minutes and now sits 5’32” off Mas’ lead.
The race continues with a major day for the GC riders on Saturday’s stage 14, a 154.5km run from Jaén to Sierra de la Pandera which includes a category-one summit finish.
In the Tour of Britain Olav Kooij got the better of rival Tim Merlier on stage three, reversing the result of Thursday’s stage two, as he pipped the Belgian in a sprint finish in Beverley. Britain’s Lewis Askey remains in the overall lead with two stages remaining, 12 seconds clear of Tim Wellens.
