Alexis Gougeard (Ag2r) confirmed that he is destined for a great future when he took his first grand tour stage win in stage 19 of the Vuelta a Espana. The Frenchman was clearly the strongest in a 24-rider group that escaped early in the stage and rode to an impressive solo victory. Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin) attacked in the finale and extended his overall lead to 6 seconds.

 

Since he turned pro at the beginning of the 2014 season, it has been evident that Alexis Gougeard is one of the biggest French talents. With his aggressive riding style and big power in lumpy terrain, he has already taken a few wins in his home country, most notable in the 4 Days of Dunkirk earlier this year.

 

Now he is making his grand tour debut at the Vuelta a Espana and he has already shown himself in a few breakaways. However, he has mostly been riding in service of Domenico Pozzovivo but with the Italian being far from his best he has had more freedom in the final part of the race.

 

Today he exploited that opportunity perfectly when he took what is by far the biggest win of his career. Having joined a 24-rider breakaway in the early part of the hilly stage 19, he proved to be in a class of his own and rode away to a solo win.

 

Christian Knees (Sky), Alexis Gougeard (Ag2r-La Mondiale), Amael Moinard (BMC), David Arroyo and Ricardo Vilela (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA), Cyril Lemoine (Cofidis), Fabio Duarte, Leonardo Duque and Juan Pablo Valencia (Team Colombia), Maxime Bouet (Etixx-Quick Step), Mickael Delage (FDJ), Jerome Coppel (IAM Cycling),  Nelson Oliveira (Lampre-Merida), Maxime Monfort and Tosh Van der Sande (Lotto-Soudal), Andrey Amador and Fran Ventoso (Movistar), Natnael Berhane (MTN-Qhubeka), Ben King (Cannondale-Garmin), Jimmy Engoulvent (Europcar), Tiago Machado and Eduard Vorganov (Katusha), Pavel Brutt (Tinkoff-Saxo) and Markel Irizar (Trek) were the riders that were allowed to escape after just 6km and they were quickly allowed to build an advantage of 17 minutes. No one showed any interest in bringing them back and Giant-Alpecin just kept the gap stable at 15-17 minutes for most of the stage.

 

That gave the escapees plenty of time to play for the win and they started the fight surprisingly early. It was Machado who opened the battle with 42km to go when he accelerated on a descent and quickly got a 30-second advantage.

 

This ended the cooperation in the chase group and from now on it was constant attacks. Irizar took off in pursuit and stayed clear for a little while before he was joined by King, Monfort, Ventoso, Duque, Brutt and Lemoine. However, they never made I across and were brought back with 35km to go.

 

Machado worked well to keep his 30-second advantage while the attacking continued. Arroyo was one of the riders to try but it was Duque who got an advantage.

 

With 30km to go, Gougeard kicked into action as he joined Duque and started to approach Machado. The Portuguese decided to wait for them and the trio was together with 29km to go.

 

The roads were now uphill and that was too much for Machado who was distanced. However, he made it back just as Gougeard led Duque across the line in the intermediate sprint.

 

Further back, the attacking continued and it was Berhane and Monfort who made a difference when the gap was 40 seconds. Meanwhile, Duque was dropped from the front group and he quickly dropped back to the two chasers.

 

Amador now decided to go full gas and while Gougeard dropped Machado on the lower slopes of the category 2 climb in the finale, the Costa Rican joined forces with Moinard to pick up Monfort. Berhane and Duque were unable to stay with them and found themselves with Arroyo further back.

 

The chase trio caught Machado who dug deep to stay with them. They managed to get to within 25 seconds of Gougerad but when Monfort led Amador, Moinard and Machado over the top, it had gone out to 30 seconds.

 

With 15km to go, Gougeard had lost some ground and was now just 15 seconds ahead. However, that’s where the chasers started to fade and as he entered the final 5km, he had an advantage of 25 seconds.

 

As he hit the bottom of the cobbled climb with 2km to go, the gap was 30 seconds and he continued to ride away as he powered up the ascent. He has plenty of time to celebrate the win which he took in emphatic solo style.

 

Behind Oliveira had made a big comeback and he managed to pass the chasers on the climb to take a second place. Monfort and Machado had briefly been dropped but the four chasers were back together to sprint for third, with the Belgian coming out on top.

 

Meanwhile, the battle for the GC had started after Johannes Fröhliner, Zico Waeytens and Tom Stamsnijder had set the pace for Giant-Alpecin all day. As they approached the final climb, the fight for position stated and Thierry Hupond quickly took over from Fröhlinger.

 

As they hit the climb, Movistar kicked into action as Imanol Erviti made a big acceleration that made the group explode. Jose Joaquin Rojas took over and Fabio Aru briefly found himself isolated until Dario Cataldo and Luis Leon Sanchez moved up next to him.

 

Giovanni Visconti took over for Movistar while a crash brought down Stephane Rossetto (Cofidis) and Arnaud Courteille (FDJ). Unfortunately, the former was forced to abandon. At the same time, Gianluca Brambilla and Romain Sicard were the first GC riders to lose contact.

 

Finally, Alejandro Valverde made his attack but Pawel Poljanski slowly reeled him in for Tinkoff-Saxo. He continued to ride on the front and also neutralized Valverde’s second attack.

 

Fabrice Jeandesboz (Europcar) attacked after they had crested the summit and briefly got a nice advantage. However, he was brought back when Valverde and Nairo Quintana tried to accelerate in a crosswind section.

 

Nieve, Pozzovivo, Rosa, Sanchez, Cataldo, Aru, De Clercq, Visconti, Quintana, Visconti, Meintjes, Chaves, Cardoso, Jeandesboz, Craddock, Dumoulin, Rodriguez, Losada, Moreno, Majka and Poljanski were the riders left in the main group as they rolled down the descent led by Visconti, Sascnhez and Rosa. Moments later, Visconti, Cataldo, Valverde and Rodriguez got a small gap but Sanchez managed to bring them back.

 

Visconti rode hard on the front to set Valverde up for another attack. However, he failed to get clear and instead Zubeldia, Impey, Degenkolb and Boswell rejoined the group.

 

Valverde refused to give up and with 9km to go, he went again. Only Rosa could stay with him and they managed to put 8 seconds into the peloton which was led by Poljanski.

 

Degenkolb managed to bridge the gap but both he and Rosa decided to sit up. It was a battle between Valverde and Poljanski for a while as the gap stayed around 5-10 seconds.

 

Valverde was 7 seconds ahead when he hit the cobbled climb but he was brought back immediately as Craddock went full gas for Giant-Alpecin. Only Dumoulin and Moreno could match his pace and when he swung off, the race leader went full gas.

 

Dumoulin and Moreno crested the summit with a small advantage over Aru who was in lone pursuit. Pozzovivo joined him and helped his compatriot limit his losses to just 3 seconds in the end. Valverde won the sprint of the main group which had splintered another four seconds later.

 

This means that Dumoulin has extended his overall lead to 6 seconds as he goes into the final big mountain stage of the race. Stage 20 covers four category 1 climbs, with the final summit coming just 17km from the finish. From there it is a short flat section and then a downhill run to the finish.

 

A hilly stage

After yesterday’s exciting stage, more climbing was in store on stage 19 which brought the riders over 185.8km from Medina del Campo to Avila. After a flat first half, the riders tackled a category 3 climb at the midpoint before they descended to the bottom of the main challenge, a category 2 climb which summited 19km from the finish. From there, it was mainly downhill but the riders would tackle a small cobbled climb in the penultimate kilometre.

 

It was a hot and sunny day when the riders gathered for the start. One riders was absent as Maarten Tjallingii (LottoNL-Jumbo) had traveled home to prepare for the World TTT Championships.

 

The break gets clear

Joe Dombrowski (Cannondale-Garmin) already asked for medical service in the neutral zone but he was back in the peloton when a Europcar rider attacked straight from the gun. Surprisingly, the elastic snapped immediately as 24 riders had taken off with a 30-second advantage after 6km of racing.

 

Christian Knees (Sky), Alexis Gougeard (Ag2r-La Mondiale), Amael Moinard (BMC), David Arroyo and Ricardo Vilela (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA), Cyril Lemoine (Cofidis), Fabio Duarte, Leonardo Duque and Juan Pablo Valencia (Team Colombia), Maxime Bouet (Etixx-Quick Step), Mickael Delage (FDJ), Jerome Coppel (IAM Cycling),  Nelson Oliveira (Lampre-Merida), Maxime Monfort and Tosh Van der Sande (Lotto-Soudal), Andrey Amador and Fran Ventoso (Movistar), Natnael Berhane (MTN-Qhubeka), Ben King (Cannondale-Garmin), Jimmy Engoulvent (Europcar), Tiago Machado and Eduard Vorganov (Katusha), Pavel Brutt (Tinkoff-Saxo) and Markel Irizar (Trek) were the riders that had made the right move and as everybody was content with the situation, the gap quickly went out to 3 minutes. Giant-Alpecin was not worried so they rode slowly on the front while the gap reached more than 10 minutes.

 

Aru goes down

At the 50km mark, it was a massive 12 minutes and with the front group riding well together, they had put 13.22 into the main group at a time when the actual distance between them was 1km. That’s when drama unfolded as a crash near the front involved Fabio Aru (Astana) and several Giant-Alpecin riders. Tom Dumoulin was also held up but did not go down.

 

Aru had to ask for medical service twice but alongside John Degenkolb (Giant-Alpecin) and Salvatore Puccio (Sky) who had both gone down, he managed to rejoin the peloton which was now 15.40 behind. Moments later, they crossed the finish line for the first time, 15.30 behind the leaders.

 

Steady pace

Giant-Alpecin continued to ride on the front while Alessandro Vanotti (Astana) finally rejoined the peloton after the crash. A little later, they hit the first climb where Bouet led Knees and Vilela over the top. The peloton followed at 15.42.

 

Fröhlinger, Waeytens and Stamsnijder had been given the task to set the pace and they kept the gap stable between the 15- and 16-minute marks for a long time. The front group worked well together and this forced them to ride pretty past.

 

With 35km to go, Dumoulin took a final natural break and this allowed the gap to go out to 17.45 as they approached the final climb. At this point, Machado had already taken off but it was Gougeard who would come out on top.