Astana’s Lopez crashes in Vuelta a España Stage 9

Lopez attacked with around 20 km to go on Alto de la Comella, quickly getting a good gap. Supporting by Gorka Izagirre and Jakob Fuglsang, the Astana leader was able to increase his advantage to 40-50 seconds on his rivals. But, under a heavy rain on a gravel sector at the bottom of the final climb Alto Els Cortals d’Encamp Miguel Angel Lopez crashed down. He tried to come back on the bike as soon as possible, but the chasing group caught him back. The Astana rider kept on fighting until the end, but, finally, lost some seconds to his main rivals, Nairo Quintana, Alejandro Valverde and Primoz Roglic.

«First of all, I want to thank my team for this great day. My teammates did absolutely incredible work for me, we really spent a very strong day in Andorra. I felt really good and I attacked on that climb as we planned. Later, I’ve got a big help from Gorka and Jakob. I was pushing as hard as I could, and everything was OK until the moment I crashed down. It was very hard to handle the bike under that heavy rain on a gravel sector. Fortunately, I did not get any serious injury, but I lost time and my rivals came across me. I continued working hard, trying to stay in that group, but gravel and mud have damaged my bike, while there was no place to change it. All I could do, just to try to stay with them as long as possible. In the end of the day I lost some seconds, not too much, but, of course, we had another plan. Anyway, I am still happy with my form and I realized I am good right now. Still two weeks in La Vuelta and we will keep on fighting,» said Miguel Angel Lopez.

«It was all about the weather in today’s final and we’ve got a bad luck on the gravel. I think we did a perfect race as a team, all guys did their best and our plan was working out ideal just until the moment of the crash. We were expecting to end this day in another way, but that’s what we have. Of course, we are disappointed with the stage results, but in the same time we’ve got a great confirmation of the strength of our team. We are looking forward to the next two weeks, I am sure La Vuelta is far from being done,» said Alexandr Shefer, sports director of Astana Pro Team.

Stage 9 from Andorra La Vella to the top of Alto Els Cortals d’Encamp (94.4 km) has been named as one of the most important stages of La Vuelta even before start of the race. A big group of riders went away immediately on the first climb of the day with 3 representatives of Astana Pro Team: Jakob Fuglsang, Gorka Izagirre and Omar Fraile. Behind the break, the Astana riders took the race under its control. Coming into the last 20 km of racing, Dario Cataldo and later Omar Fraile moved Miguel Angel Lopez up in front, preparing his attack. The leader of Astana Pro Team launched a powerful attack, and nobody could follow him. Later, Lopez got a help from Gorka Izagirre and Jakob Fuglsang to increase his advantage to 40-50 seconds. After the top of Alto de Engolasters, Lopez still had a good advantage, but a heavy rain completely broke the gravel road just at the bottom of the final climb. Miguel Angel crashed down, but later he was able to continue the race, joining the group of his rivals. In the end of the day, Lopez finished 9th, losing 38 seconds to Nairo Quintana, who finished second and 13 seconds to Primoz Roglic and Alejandro Valverde.

A young Slovenian rider Tadej Pogacar became the stage winner after a solo attack from the GC favorite’s group on the final climb.

Stage 9 ends the first week of La Vuelta. Nairo Quintana moved into the lead of the race, while Miguel Angel Lopez remained on his third place, 17 seconds behind Quintana. Lopez still leads the best young rider classification.

Today, the peloton of the Vuelta a España will spend the first rest day of the race.