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Winners and losers of the second week of the 2024 Vuelta a España
We’re into the final week of the 2024 Vuelta a España and we’ve seen it all – well, nearly it all – at this year’s race. After 15 stages, the Spanish Grand Tour has proved to be one of the most enthralling in years. Plenty of twists and turns await in the final week as the race heads for showdowns on the Lagos de Covadonga and Picón Blanco, before a final time-trial around Madrid.
For the moment, Ben O’Connor remains at the top of the overall classification, leading Primož Roglič by by 1min 03sec and Enric Mas by 2min 23sec. Wout van Aert continues to lead both the points classification and the mountains classification after 15 stages, while Roglič’s teammate Florian Lipowitz wears the white jersey for the best young rider. Last week, we saw wins from Van Aert, Eddie Dunbar, Pablo Castrillo, Michael Woods and Kaden Groves.
As we take a break for a final rest day, let’s assess who the winners and losers of the race’s second week were.
Winner: Pablo Castrillo
In week one, the Spanish wildcard teams showed us that they might be the most courageous out of all the Grand Tour wildcards. They made the podium on a couple of occasions, with some surprise performances inside the top ten. They’ve had the bravery to go in the breakaway – Giro and Tour teams take note – playing the wildcard game the old-school way.
A study in perseverance, Kern-Pharma’s Pablo Castrillo became a familiar face in the breakaways, but on Stage 13 he did one better with a stage win at Montaña de Manzaneda, proving he’s more than just a breakaway filler. With a stage win in his first Grand Tour, he’s played a blinder.
A couple of days later on Stage 15, Castrillo tried again at Cuitu Negru, the toughest climb on this Vuelta’s parcours. In the fog, the 23-year-old duelled against Sasha Vlasov in the final kilometre before toppling the Russian in the steep finale to claim a second win. This man is now well and truly on the map. Rumoured to be heading to Ineos Grenadiers next year, we hope Castrillo can get himself a big WorldTour contract on the back of this exceptional Grand Tour performance.
Winner: Primož Roglič
No asterisk is required this week – Primož Roglič is the big winner in the GC fight. He may not be in the red leader’s jersey (yet), but the Slovenian has made major inroads towards claiming the overall victory in Madrid on Sunday. Day after day he has chipped away at O’Connor’s lead, reducing the gap over the course of the week by nearly three minutes to now stand just 1min 03sec behind in the GC with three crucial mountain stages and a time-trial to come.
The Red Bull leader demonstrated some great climbing form on the slopes of the Puerto de Ancares on Stage 13 in particular, halving his deficit on that day alone. He continued to boss the GC group on Stage 15 with another impressive show of strength in the steep finales. Despite picking up a 20-second penalty for drafting, the red jersey is now almost within reach, even if he isn’t able to close in any further before the final time-trial on Sunday.
If he does win the race on Sunday, it would equal the overall record of four Vuelta wins currently held by Spaniard Roberto Heras. It would also provide Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe with the big headline victory they have been looking for this season.
Winner: Eddie Dunbar
I remember in 2015 when bets were being placed on Eddie Dunbar being a future Tour de France winner. He was only 18 at the time.
Now at the age of 27, the Munsterman claimed his first Grand Tour stage victory, and the first win for Ireland at a Grand Tour this year. This was a feel-good moment for cycling fans after Dunbar’s tumultuous journey through the ranks, which has seen big expectations clash with team deceit and injuries. From the breakaway on Stage 11, Dunbar, a lightweight climber, jumped away from the group of punchier riders to claim a solo win in a hugely cunning manner. That victory combined with a run of good form throughout the second week has seen Dunbar rise to 15th place overall.
He enters an elite club of Munster riders to claim a victory at the Vuelta alongside Sean Kelly and Sam Bennett. It continues Ireland’s habit over the years of overperforming at Grand Tours. Only 19 Irishmen have ever ridden Grand Tours, and ten of whom are now stage winners.
Winner: Florian Lipowitz
It’s only Florian Lipowitz’s second Grand Tour, and the first time he has gone as far as the second week after he abandoned the Giro after Stage 5 earlier this year. It’s fair to say, then, that he’s been something of a revelation during the 2024 Vuelta. While he showed glimpses of his prowess earlier this year at the Tour de Romandie, the German has truly stepped up onto the Grand Tour stage over the first two weeks of Spain’s Grand Tour.
The Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe rider has doubled up as a secondary GC leader and super-domestique for Primož Roglič. In balancing these two roles, Lipowitz has been noticeable throughout this race, especially in the second week of racing. He provided some fantastic mountain tows on Stages 13 and 15, and he has weathered the GC storm, currently sitting in sixth place in the general classification.
On top of this, Lipowitz leads a fierce fight for the young riders’ white jersey. His consistency has been noticeable, especially in comparison to his competitors for this prize in Mattias Skjelmose and Carlos Rodríguez who have both gone through peaks and troughs during this Vuelta. At the age of just 23, Lipowitz has given team principal Ralf Denk a lot to think about. Is he the future leader of this team, the heir to Roglič’s energy drink throne?
Winners: Sprinters in the mountains
This week has seen sprinters punch above their weight in the hills. Mauro Schmid, Kaden Groves and Wout van Aert have all finished on the podium of mountain stages this week.
In a rather surreal turn of events, Groves won a mountain stage featuring a 23km climb in the final 50km. Van Aert has also shown his hand in the mountains this week. We already knew he could climb of course, but probably didn’t expect him to be leading the Vuelta’s polka-dot jersey standings (as well as the points jersey standings).
In doing so he has been defeating more lightweight climbers like Jay Vine and Marc Soler, with the cherry on the top being his Stage 10 victory, taken after he escaped from the break over the final climb. Is Van Aert testing his climbing legs ahead of the World Championships? We’ll soon find out.
Loser: UAE Team Emirates
This is a bittersweet inclusion. The squad suffered a big blow when they lost João Almeida at the end of Stage 8 last week. And while the team have since lit up the race, they’ve failed to either score a stage win or make inroads into the top ten overall. Yes, Pavel Sivakov has slipped into tenth place, but that’s a poor return for a team that started the Vuelta with a blockbuster roster capable of so much more. If only Tadej Pogačar were here.
To continue the negatives of the week, Adam Yates slipped out of the top ten. After receiving a GC lifeline last week, he has been far off the top pace on week two, and now sits 11th overall. The exciting Isaac del Toro, meanwhile, has fallen out of contention citing illness while Brandon McNulty suffered a major blow in a downhill crash on Stage 13.
Marc Soler has at least been a regular fixture in the breakaway. He finished in third on three separate occasions during the second week, often getting outfoxed by other riders in the escape group, mainly down to his frantic tactics. Jay Vine, meanwhile, has managed to rack up a good number of mountains points this week and is now tied with Wout van Aert in that classification, but he has some work to do in the final week if he wants to defeat him. Van Aert has demonstrated his intent to win the competition, so Vine will need to produce something special in the high mountains on Stages 16, 19 and 20 if he wants to claim the jersey.
UAE Team Emirates have every chance to turn around their Vuelta before the end of the race on Sunday, but it will probably require another stage win and Vine to win the mountains prize to do so. They have enough firepower to do it, they just need to race with their heads a little more in the final week.
Loser: Every UCI-mandated yellow card handed
Yellow cards? Am I watching the right sport? Well, yes. Cycling now has a yellow card system akin to professional football. For bad behaviour, riders are handed a yellow card as a warning. If they receive another, the penalty is a week-long suspension and a disqualification from that given race.
This rule was adopted at the beginning of August and has been met with a lukewarm response, mainly due to the lack of clarification surrounding incidents where the yellow card has been used. The UCI don’t explain their decisions beyond having set out the 21 ‘cycling crimes’ (listed in article 2.12.007 of the UCI Regulations) that warrant the warning being issued. I will also clarify that the UCI don’t hand out a physical yellow card like a FIFA World Cup referee, they are quietly handed out behind the scenes.
During the Vuelta, quite a few of these have been dished out. After Stage 11, four yellow cards were given to Decathlon-AG2R – three to riders and one to sports director Cyril Dessel – for blocking the road, causing Richard Carapaz to crash. This caused a bit of a stir to say the least. Decathlon hit out against the decision, pleading their innocence.
We don’t know whether Decathlon’s move to block the road was a deliberate tactic or not, but that doesn’t matter to the UCI. The Decathlon quartet aren’t the only ones to have fallen foul of the guidelines, however. Alexandr Shefer, an Astana staff member, received a booking for leaning out of the team car; James Knox was noted down in the referee’s book for ‘incorrect, indecent or dangerous behaviour towards spectators’. In truth, this new system has been a bit of a farce this week.
And don’t get me started on Roglič’s 20 second penalty…
Loser: Bahrain Victorious
Did anyone see Bahrain Victorious this week? I am not sure they actually continued riding after the previous rest day. Maybe they got lost in the Carrefour supermarket on Stage 6?
The team failed to make the top ten on a single stage during the second week of the Vuelta. This is mightily disappointing from a team that has regularly podiumed Grand Tours and captured stage wins in the past.
Jack Haig, podium finisher at this race just three years ago, has slipped down the GC standings to now sit a lowly 19th, with Torstein Træen their next best placed rider down in 57th place. Yes, they lost Antonio Tiberi at the end of the first week, but they have rarely been seen in the breakaway attempting to lick their wounds with an escapee victory since. It’s not like the breakaways haven’t been successful so far in this Vuelta either. Bahrain Victorious just haven’t been in them.
If they do leave the race without a stage win, it will make this their first year without a Grand Tour stage win since they were created in 2017. They’re also now on track to finish the year with just one GC top ten in Grand Tours, also a first in the team’s history. Is this a blip in form, or have they permanently lost their sparkle? Will they be renamed Bahrain Defeated in 2025? So many questions, and so few answers…
Loser: Ineos Grenadiers
The weekly Ineos Grenadiers soapbox continues. Johnathan Narváez has given us glimmers of hope – albeit in his final Grand Tour for the team before he leaves for UAE Team Emirates – but Ineos are continuing to disappoint.
Carlos Rodríguez lost his lead in the white jersey with all the panache of a wet sponge. The Spaniard has a proven record of wobbling in the final week, so expect him to also fall behind the rejuvenated Mattias Skjelmose in the stages to come. The British team still are without a stage win and Rodríguez has slipped down to eighth place overall.
Call me harsh, but Ineos Grenadiers should be targeting bigger things. They are at serious risk of leaving this Vuelta without a stage win and a potential ninth or tenth place in the GC standings. Things need to change if the British team want to keep their super-team reputation – if they haven’t lost it already.
Loser: Climbers (in general)
The final losers on this list are the climbers, all of them (apart from you, Pablo Castrillo). GC riders have gone a full week without a stage win, while sprinter Kaden Groves has won a mountain stage and Wout van Aert – a man who’s won the sprint on the Champs-Elysées – is leading the polka-dot jersey standings.
Castrillo humiliated the mountain goats in the break twice this week, notably Sasha Vlasov, a former top five finisher at the Tour de France. Felix Gall – who won one of the hardest Tour mountain days in recent memory – bled out 30 minutes in the GC on Stage 15 while Swiss engines Mauro Schmid and Stefan Küng have kept in touch on the tougher climbs far more than we ever expected. Michael Woods is left carrying the torch for the climbers on his own, it seems.
There are only three more chances for the climbers to turn it around and dethrone Van Aert in the mountains classification. The Vuelta is supposed to be their bread and butter, but so far the peloton’s out-and-out mountain men have failed to impress.
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