Vuelta a Burgos: Felix Gall seals overall victory as Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe take out final stage

“I had the team always with me, even when when my legs were not there. So today we try our best to to take this stage, and I’m super proud of my team,” Pellizzari said. “What they did for me is something crazy. It’s a crazy tough climb.

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“I was pretty tired at the bottom of the climb, but I never stopped believing. I had to do to do something for my team. And then I was out of GC, so they were looking each other, and I just took the moment to attack.

“It was really a super week for us. It was the first race for me after long break after the Giro, and I didn’t feel super good, but I never stopped believe in my team and myself.”

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Gall sealed the overall win ahead of Onley, who leapfrogged Ciccone to end up second, pushing the Italian into third.

“As expected, it was a big fight today again, and it was super hot and also a hard stage. I’m super happy. It’s my first GC win,” Gall said. “I did a really good altitude block, and I came straight here. I gained a lot of confidence this week, and now I will have a few easy days at home, and then it already is the Vuelta.”

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Felix Gall on the winner’s podium (Image credit: Getty Images)

The final stage of the Vuelta a Burgos to the hors-categorie ascent of the Lagunas de Neila was just 137 kilometres long and was ‘full gas’ from kilometre zero, with numerous attacks and splits in the peloton. After 52 kilometres, a group of 15 riders managed to get a rather slim advantage.

Kevin Vermaerke and Igor Arrieta (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), Gianmarco Garofoli (Soudal-Quickstep), Jorge Arcas (Movistar), Vincenzo Albanese (EF Education-EasyPost), Afonso Eulalio (Bahrain Victorious), Remy Rochas (Groupama-FDJ United), Davide Donati (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), Milan Vader (Pinarello Q36.5), Mathieu Burgaudeau and Baptiste Vadic (TotalEnergies), Urko Berrade and Nil Gimeno (Kern Pharma), Lennart Jasch (Tudor) and Jonathan Lastra (Euskaltel Euskadi) made the move, but Eulalio and Jasch crashed out and dropped back along with Lastra.

The remaining 12 came apart further after the Alto de Tolbaños when Vermaerke and Garofoli attacked with 29km to go. Albanese scrambled across, but was dropped not long after.

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On the Alto de Rozavientos, Vermaerke accelerated and dropped Garofoli but had only half a minute on the chasing peloton. Pavel Sivakov jumped from the peloton across to his teammate along with Nils Driesen (Lotto Intermarché).

Kevin Vermaerke on the attack (Image credit: Getty Images)

Although the gap had fallen to 12 seconds at the summit, the trio had opened it back up to 40 seconds at the base of the final climb. Vermaerke was dropped and went back to a large chasing group with 5.8km to go, just before the climb began to get steep.

Driesen dropped Sivakov with 3.9km to go, but Decathlon were collaborating with Lidl-Trek, bringing his lead down to just a few seconds. He was finally swept up with 3.6km to go on the steepest section of the climb.

In the final kilometres, Onley, Pellizzari, Gall, Ciccone, Mas and Rondel emerged as the strongest. Pellizzari put in a huge attack with 1.4km to go and went into the final kilometre with 23 seconds on Gall.

Next to go was Rondel, who began making inroads until being brought back by Ciccone, Onley and Gall. Pellizzari held on for the stage win but couldn’t loosen Gall’s grip on the overall classification.