Britain’s Tom Pidcock was dropped on the notorious Angliru climb on stage 13 of La Vuelta with six kilometres to go, but rallied his strength and lost only 1min 16sec on a climb on which grand tours can be made or broken. He remains in third place overall behind Visma-Lease a Bike’s Jonas Vingegaard, who stays in the race lead, and UAE Team Emirates-XRG’s João Almeida, who won the stage just ahead of the Dane.
Cycling is a sport of myths in which the names of mountains take on a meaning beyond the geographical. Alpe d’Huez, Mont Ventoux, Passo dello Stelvio — all have provided the backdrop to duels between the greatest heroes. And we can, perhaps, add to that list the Angliru in the Asturias in northwest Spain, a narrow, twisting pass covering 12.5km with an average gradient of 9.7 per cent and a peak of 24 per cent along the 600m Cueña les Cabres “Goat Road” section.
It is, as Óscar Sevilla, the Spanish rider who won atop the mountain in 2002, called it, “inhuman”. And that description is even more apt when it comes on a 203km stage from Cabezón de la Sal and after two category-one climbs. The Vuelta 2025 route designer, Fernando Escartín, called it “a crucial test for the favourite riders who, should they have a bad day, can kiss La Vuelta goodbye”.
And so it could have been for Q36.5’s Pidcock who, after a brave Vuelta in which he has kept pace with Vingegaard and Almeida, even dropping them both on a protester-disrupted stage 11, found his limit on the mountain as the man from Leeds dropped out of the group of favourites with 6km to go.
The 26-year-old was doomed to a lonely ascent of the final mountain. He held the wheel of the Decathlon–AG2R La Mondiale rider Felix Gall at first and then was part of a small group including Giulio Pellizzari of Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe and Matthew Riccitello of Israel-Premier Tech, but soon the pace was too much and he dropped back and was left alone, his head bobbing and his jersey unzipped as he climbed the narrow road into the fog that had settled on the peak.
But he kept riding at his own pace and never seemed to crack on a climb that, on paper, doesn’t suit him. He limited his losses and in the final kilometres Pidcock accelerated out of the saddle, caught Pellizzari and Riccitello and crossed the line in seventh, just 1min 16sec behind Vingegaard and Almeida.
He may have to kiss the overall win goodbye, but that was never his target. Since day one his goal has been a top-ten finish, something that is still very much alive. Grand-tour cycling is often about how you manage your bad days, not just the good ones.
Pidcock finishes in seventh place on the stage, just ahead of the US rider Riccitello
TIM DE WAELE/GETTY
“Hard climb, isn’t it?” he said after the stage. “It was super-tough, it was just [a process of] finding the rhythm, but it was just unforgiving. At the start I was OK but I knew I couldn’t continue at that pace. I just tried to do my own pace, but it’s just fighting the whole way up, you can’t get into a rhythm.
“I didn’t lose too much time. I would have liked to have been at the front but, also, you’ve got to be realistic. I did a pretty good effort considering how long [the climb] was. I’ve broken numerous power records this Vuelta. Obviously it’s getting late into the race so it’s taking its toll now.”
If Pidcock wants to hold on to his third position he will have to recover quickly before Saturday’s stage 14, another mountainous day covering 136km between Avilés and La Farrapona. Red Bull’s Jai Hindley, winner of the 2022 Giro d’Italia, is now only 42 seconds behind Pidcock on general classification, in fourth, and riding into form after finishing third on the stage.
Stage 13 standings (Cabezón de la Sal to L’Angliru, 202km)1, J Almeida (Por, UAE Team Emirates-XRG) 4hr 54min 15sec2, J Vingegaard (Den, Visma-Lease a Bike) same time3, J Hindley (Aus, Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) at 28sec behind4, S Kuss (US, Visma-Lease a Bike) 305, F Gall (Austria, Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) 52.6, G Pellizzari (It, Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) 1min 11sec7, T Pidcock (GB, Q36.5 Pro Cycling) 1:168, M Riccitello (US, Israel-Premier Tech) same time9, G Ciccone (It, Lidl-Trek) 2:1510, A Balderstone (Sp, Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) 3:06.
Overall standings3, T Pidcock (GB, Q36.5 Pro Cycling) 2:18