Thomas De Gendt finished more than 10 minutes behind the first rider in yesterday's stage and has been below his usual level, failing to join a single break. In today's stage 14, he has abandoned the race.

Before the stage, he explained why he has not been at his best:

“I think the teams of the favourites will already take control on the penultimate climb," he said. "I really had bad legs yesterday. This Vuelta obviously isn’t the Tour. Of course it was a totally different preparation and I had to fully recover from my rib injury. That cost a lot of energy during and after the Tour, so that’s probably why I’m not on the level I wanted to be. Hopefully it will soon change.

"How tough the situation of Kris Boeckmans is for us? At first, we were all shaken, now we focus on the race and get updates every day. He’s in good hands.”