Vuelta a Andalucía: Spanish National Champion Iván Romeo powers home alone for stage win and overall lead

It was another aggressive start to the day in southern Spain as multiple riders tried to form a breakaway after the race left Torrox and headed on the lumpy 138.6km route to Otura. An early move by Javier Ibáñez (Kern Pharma) and Georgios Bouglas (Burgos-BH-Burpellet) tried to get away but didn’t last long before nine riders – Haimar Etxeberria (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), Josh Burnett (Burgos-BH-Burpellet), Iker Gomez (Kern Pharma), Javier Ibañez (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA), Gari Ugarte (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Michiel Lambrecht (Flanders-Baloise), Edison Alejandro Callejas (Petrolike), Giosue Epis (Petrolike) and Ion Izagirre (Cofidis) – got a small gap.

They were brought back as the break was just too big. After being caught, three riders kicked on and got a gap of over a minute in very short order. Burnett, who was on the attack a lot on day one, was at it again today, getting into the second break as well as the first. He was joined by Ibai Azanza (Kern Pharma), also a stage 1 attacker, as well as Jose Antonio Prieto (Petrolike).

As the race headed into the final 100km of the day the gap extended to over two minutes as the three-man group pulled away from the peloton. They started to head up the 25km long Puerto de la Cabra. The category one climb was the first and most major test of the day.

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The break changed again when Spanish National Champion Ivan Romeo (Movistar) and Norwegian champion Andreas Leknessund (Uno-X Mobility) joined Burnett at the front of the race, with just 14” on a fast-crumbling bunch as GC riders put in attacks.

A chasing group got away containing Tom Pidcock (Pinarello-Q36.5), Tim Wellens (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), Adrien Boichis (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), Aleksandr Vlasov (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), Jefferson Cepeda (Movistar), Valentin Madouas (Groupama-FDJ United) and Luca Cretti (MBH Bank CSB Telecom Fort). They were working on closing down on the leaders who went over the Puerto de la Cabra led by Romeo.

The chase group was dragged back by Cofidis, only for a new move of Geoffrey Bouchard (TotalEnergies), Lorenzo Nespoli (MBH Bank CSB Telecom Fort) and Sylvain Moniquet (Cofidis) to try to bridge to the leaders who had dragged the gap out to over 40 seconds. However, the peloton came together again, albeit a with a dramatically reduced bunch.

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Matteo Vercher (TotalEnergies) was the next to go. Wellens tried to follow the latest launch but he was heavily marked. Vercher quickly got a good gap on the remnants of the peloton but he wasn’t making any inroads on the leaders of Romeo, Leknessund and Burnett.

Meanwhile, back in the peloton, the bunch had completely sat up. This allowed the Visma-Lease a Bike-led group that included stage one winner, Christophe Laporte (Visma-Lease a Bike) to get back on. His teammates went straight to the front of the peloton led by Victor Campenaerts. This new injection of pace changed the whole complexion of the stage.

The new impetus in the peloton and the strong pace out front meant that Vercher pulled the plug and waited for the fast-closing bunch. However, the leaders were continuing their rapid pace and had dragged their gap out to almost three minutes on the peloton where Pinarello-Q36.5 and Visma-Lease a Bike, later joined by UAE Team Emirates, were working on the front.

That said, with 55km to go, the twisty roads were working in favour of the break. The wind also started to get a bit more intense and saw a crash for Andrii Ponomar (Petrolike), Jose Felix Parra (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) and Gotzon Martin (Euskaltel-Euskadi).

With 37km to go the riders moved onto an uncategorised climb and, finally, Burnett was dropped from the front with the two national champions, Romeo and Leknessund, riding away. It didn’t change the dynamic, though, as the New Zealander, in the break for two days running, had barely been able to contribute.

Benoit Cosnefroy and Pavel Sivakov of UAE Team Emirates-XRG came to the front of the peloton to try to pull the time gap down. Over the top, Pinarello-Q36.5 took over the tiny peloton of about 30 riders with Quinten Hermans. This saw the gap drop back under two minutes to Romeo and Leknessund out front.

Into the final 15km more teams came to the front with UAE Team Emirates-XRG, Pinarello-Q36.5, Groupama-FDJ United and the newly arrived Visma-Lease a Bike all leading the way. The gap dropped to a minute and a half at the base of the final climb, the category three, 2.6km long, Alto de la Malahá.

Into the last 6km and the leading duo still had 1:25 seconds on the peloton. The leaders had done a magnificent job to try and go all the way. Behind, the peloton were giving their all but it appeared that it was too little too late.

With 3km to go there was an attack by Vlasov and Aranburu and the peloton’s chase stalled with the leaders almost certain to take the stage. Romeo tried to go out front ahead of Leknessund but the Norwegian rider was holding firm until 1.5km to go as the Spanish national champion rode away as the road started to rise.

Leknessund gave his all to stay with the Spaniard and managed to hold onto seven seconds with Romeo crossing the line first. Back in the peloton, the gap had closed dramatically but as Aranburu led in the bunch in the sprint, they were still 54” down.

Romeo went into the lead in every single standing and had a healthy lead over everyone but Leknessund who was well within challenging distance to the Spanish champion. The only jersey Romeo didn’t get was the best Andalusian rider, which was taken by his Movistar teammate, Juan Pedro Lopez.