Astana’s Vlasov 10th in sprint from reduced peloton, Vuelta a España, Stage 16

NUR-SULTAN. KAZINFORM Stage 16 of the Vuelta a España has been held November 6 between Salamanca and Ciudad Rodrigo (162 km). With two categorized climbs and hard wind conditions it was another tough day for the riders.

T he stage ended with the sprint from the reduced peloton, won by Magnus Cort, while Astana’s Aleksandr Vlasov finished 10^th, the Astana Pro Team’s official website reads.

«Our main goal was to protect position of Aleksandr Vlasov and to bring him to the finish without troubles. So, he finished 10th together will all other favorites and before the last mountain stage Vlasov is still 9th in the general classification. Also, we had an idea to see if Alex Aranburu could survive in the group on the last climb to try something with him at the finish. But, after 200 km in the breakaway yesterday in very difficult weather conditions today he missed a bit of energy to follow the peloton on the climb. However, we achieved our main goal and now we are looking forward to the last day in the mountains,» said Dmitriy Fofonov, sports manager of Astana Pro Team.

Once again there were many attacks from the start of the stage and, finally, a group of 6 riders went in a daily breakaway. With 25 km to the finish the last two riders were almost caught back by the peloton, but the break did not give up. In the end of the day, the last rider from the break has been absorbed by the red jersey group with just 2 km to go and then the sprint decided the stage winner.

Stage 17, the last mountain stage of La Vuelta 2020 will be held today: the peloton will do 178.2 km from Sequeros to the top of HC category climb Alto de la Covatilla.