Sepp Kuss (Visma-Lease a Bike) sealed general victory on the Vuelta a Burgos after he completed safely in the primary peloton in Condado de Treviño, the place Pavel Bittner (DSM-Firmenich-PostNL) received stage 5 in a bunch dash.
Kuss had carried a lead of simply 5 seconds over Bittner’s teammate Max Poole into the ultimate day. Regardless of that slender margin, his general victory was by no means actually doubtful though DSM did make an try to open on the head of the bunch on Poole’s behalf within the closing two kilometres.
The general triumph, cast on the summit end at Lagunas de Neila, underlined Kuss’ kind forward of the Vuelta a España, the place he returns because the defending champion. The American was compelled to overlook this 12 months’s Tour de France after choosing up a COVID-19 an infection forward of the race.
Friday’s closing stage was anticipated to provide a decreased bunched dash, however daylong escapees Michael Leonard (Ineos) and Patrick Gamper (Pink Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) got here agonisingly near pulling off an upset earlier than they have been swept up with simply over 300m to go.
Leonard and Gamper had escaped within the opening kilometres with Pim Ronhaar (Lidl-Trek), and so they struck up an honest working alliance on the rugged terrain between Frías and Condado de Treviño, carrying a lead of greater than two minutes into the ultimate 40km.
Jayco-Alula, Movistar and Burgos-BH have been among the many groups main the chase, although the Australian squad’s curiosity within the pursuit ended when Caleb Ewan was dropped on the ultimate climb with a shade over 19km remaining.
By that time, the race had handed by way of the end line for the primary time, and the escapees had reached the 26km to go mark nonetheless holding a lead of 1:30 over the peloton. Regardless of dropping Ronhaar to cramp, Leonard and Gamper pressed on, and so they crested the summit of the climb nonetheless with half a minute in hand on the chasers.
The climb didn’t provoke any actual frissons within the race for the final classification, however there was a sequence of accelerations within the peloton that required vigilance from Kuss and Poole.
Probably the most telling assault got here from Victor Lafay (Decathlon-AG2R), who pressed clear excessive within the firm of Davide Piganzoli (Polti-Kometa). They’d near inside 20 seconds of Leonard and Gamper, however they couldn’t get a lot nearer and so they have been caught with 7km remaining.
With 3km to go, Leonard tried to forge clear alone on a false flat, however Gamper was nearly in a position to claw again the Canadian teenager’s effort, and the 2 escapees entered the ultimate kilometre collectively, nonetheless clutching a lead of a handful of seconds.
Behind, DSM have been working to tee up Bittner, however they briefly let Poole drift clear in an try to catch out Kuss.
“We had two guys in entrance, so we let the wheel go simply to see,” Bittner defined. “It was not likely deliberate, that was simply to power the opposite guys to chase.”
Leonard and Gamper’s hopes have been in the end dashed close by of the road, as Ivan Garcia Cortina (Movistar) opened his dash from distance on the rise in the direction of the end. For the second time this week, Bittner proved the quickest within the dash, and the Czech got here off Garcia Cortina’s wheel to take the win forward of Giacomo Nizzolo (Q36.5 Professional Biking Group).
“I actually don’t know what to say, this week has been actually unreal,” Bittner stated. “Just a few days in the past, I picked up my first victory and to win once more is basically cool.”
Within the closing general standings, Kuss claimed victory from Poole by 5 seconds, whereas Finn Fisher-Black (UAE Group Emirates) took third at 34 seconds.
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