There were 7.5 kilometers left to reach the finish line, the devilish ramps of Port Ainé. He drank a Pogacar drink and threw the can away, free of charges for what was left. Landa did the same, ready for battle, Homeric undertaking his against the Slovenian. But it didn’t matter so much because, gallant and protagonist, he decided to attack, a burst of fire that left everyone with their mouths open except, of course, for a Pogacar who not only played along but also made a counterattack, kidney blows. and steel pedal strokes, unparalleled climbing. “I knew it was going to get hot and I was hoping to withstand it, but from the beginning I couldn’t,” Landa accepted, still breathing heavily after the arrival. “He attacked me and I followed him, although I thought it was a little early. So I thought maybe we could both go up, but I found a good rhythm…”, replied Pogacar, who little by little was opening the gap, who once again was left alone, show of the good and ascension that once again earned him the laurel of the stage and, incidentally, he clarified to anyone that he has no rival, that he is in the Volta and then the rest, that there is only one extraterrestrial.
Sant Joan de les Abadesses woke up with a dense fog, the kind that does not allow you to see beyond a few meters, a bucolic painting of a leafy forest that gives way to spring and hidden roads, a Pyrenean biruji. But as the hours passed, the sun took over the landscape, far from the hail that hit the cyclists in the previous stage, a punishment expressed by Enric Mas shivering when he got off the bike or the body shakes of Mikel Landa, a fighter himself, to get rid of the bike. of the water that penetrated it. “I have recovered my temperature,” he accepted before the game. The day’s stage, however, would not give the peloton any respite either. “Pogacar will surely attack again,” they summarized from the buses of the cyclists who were crowding before the start, aware that the day would be hard with the climbs to Port de Tossas (1st category) and the two except category (special category) from Port Cantó and, as a finishing touch, from Port Ainé. The director of the UAE, Matxín, smiled. Tadej, who was taking selfies with his teammates after the previous day, does not run to pass the time but to add laurels to his already extensive track record. “We have come to try to win, we have worked very hard for that, to arrive in the best shape and in the end the victory pays off for everyone’s hard work,” the Slovenian resolved from Sant Joan.
As soon as the stage started, Mollema (Trek) decided to be the combative man of the day, breaking away when the curtain rose. Lipowitz (Bora) did not want to be less, a fellow soldier. But the platoon was not willing to give illusions, so they absorbed the daring braves, just as they also neutralized the following attempts. Until 10 riders decided to go off script, the escape was consolidated. But UAE did not want any surprises, as they did not let the lead exceed a minute and a half. It happened that in the second port, 25.4 kilometers long and with ramps of up to 12% slope, Visma took over, a sign that the American Kuss was not willing to leave his second land, Catalonia, empty-handed – he lived in Girona and now he does it in Andorra -, out of tune on the previous mountain day, responsibility of the leader of the best team in the peloton although not in the Volta. Thus, 65 kilometers from the finish line everything returned to the starting box, grouped platoon and every man for himself.
“It will be a different day, surely more runners will attack and it will be more difficult to control the race. We will have to try to reach the last climb as fresh as possible,” Pogacar agreed before the start. Concession that Visma tried to undermine, as it imposed its pace on the ascent, enough to chip away at the peloton at times, although nothing that could not be recovered on the descent towards Rialp, hitch with the steep Port Ainé, 18.7 kilometers of ramps with an average slope of 6.8% and ramps of 12%. And with the welcome of the slope, the UAE regained its prominence, Marc Soler at the front, the gregarious that everyone wanted, the cyclist who lined up and sipped the peloton until he ran out of gasoline. The first kilometers were pure torture for the legs and lungs, but Víctor de la Parte (Euskaltel) launched the attack, an attack that was known to be sterile but that gave visibility to the team. A beautiful attempt that Soudal aborted because Mikel Landa, who once again made good that romantic concept of countryism, of the old-style cyclist that so engages the fan, he felt strong, ambition ahead and without fear of Emperor Pogacar, a ploy to erode the rest and screw himself as second. Such was the pace set by his partner Jan Hirt that a survival exercise ensued. darwinianothe natural selection of the strongest, perhaps 25 runners standing.
The suffering faces followed one another, the snorting, gasps of air that were difficult to arrive, burning lungs. Not so the hieratic Pogacar, without gestures or expressiveness, as if he were even about to start whistling, confident pedaling and elegant posture. Then came Landa’s attack and Pogacar’s blow, which opened a gap with every meter, and nothing and no one could stop him. Glory to the king and something else. That was Landa, who received a visit from Kuss, who attacked from behind with a brutal change of pace and who seemed to want to return the favor of Angliru, when Mikel took him to the wheel to save the jersey, ultimately champion of the Vuelta . But Kuss is not in his prime He didn’t even have that much oxygen, so Landa refused help, capable of changing the rhythm again, of disengaging to shoot, without looking back. Another second place, another success, the best of mortals, 48 seconds behind the Slovenian, who raised his fist 150 meters from the checkered flag, who raised his arms when crossing the finish line. “I wanted to get a bit of an advantage in third place and I did it. It’s a shame that Pogacar is there because victory will be difficult,” Landa summarized. “It’s difficult to aspire to something more than making the podium seeing how Pogacar is doing,” Kuss assumed. Because no one resists Tadej’s tyranny, two career victories, leadership with more than two minutes of advantage, soliloquy in the Volta.