Vuelta a España. Miguel Angel Superman Lopez finishes third atop Sierra Nevada

A strong Miguel Angel Lopez attacked with 10,5 km to go, in pursuit of survivors of the early break, precious time and a stage win. Lopez was joined by Enric Mas. Both riders caught most of the riders of the break, including David De La Cruz who helped both riders to gain as much time as possible. In the end stage winner Tijmen Arensman was the only rider that stayed ahead. Mas and Lopez finished at 1’23” but gained time on Evenepoel (34”), Roglic (18”), Ayuso (30”) and Rodriguez (2’04”).

“I tried again, and I will keep on trying, even if it is just for few seconds. It’s already very important for me to be in the mix again. I don’t make a choice in my way of racing – stage win or top 5 in GC – a stage win would be welcome but anyway I try to finish as high as possible every day. It was already a tough Vuelta, the race seems to be harder every day. I welcome the rest day of tomorrow”, ­– explained Miguel Angel Lopez.

Miguel Angel Lopez is still sixth in GC but the gaps with the higher ranked riders get smaller.

“I feel better and better. It’s a pity I lost a lot of time in the first week. After my injury in the Giro d’Italia, I had as good as no competition before the Vuelta. And then you arrive here to race against riders who did the Tour de France. I paid a price for that, but most important is that I feel good now”, – added Lopez.

Vincenzo Nibali was again one of the first attackers of the day, leading to the decisive break of 29 riders. At 20 km from the finish, Nibali crashed on melted asphalt but doesn’t suffer any major injury.

Photo credit: @Gettysport