Julian Alaphilippe (Quick-Step), Simon Yates (Bike Exchange) Pavel Sivakov (Ineos). On the same day they said goodbye to the Vuelta two top-ten with serious aspirations to the podium and the most illustrious squire of Remco Evenepoel, undisputed leader of the race so far. The Frenchman said goodbye after a crash in the eleventh stage between El Pozo and Cabo de Gata with an apparent collarbone injury. The first two, however, were victims of covid, the disease endemic to the race until now.
In the purely sporting, the Australian Kaden Groves (23 years old) prevailed in a completely clean massive sprint. The one from Bike Exchenge did a good job for his team, who dominated the last kilometers to avoid surprises after neutralizing the only breakaway of the day formed by Jetse Bol (Burgos BH), Vojtech Repa (Kern Pharma) and Joan Bou (Euskaltel).
On the volata Groves had to weave between several rivals to finally overtake Van Poppel and Merlier, with Mads Pedersen fifth. The Australian took advantage of the absence of Sam Bennet, out due to covid, to win what is still the third massive sprint of the race after eleven days.
As far as covid is concerned, concern grows day by day in the platoon due to a constant trickle of cases that does not stop. On Tuesday, four runners had to give up competing in the time trial: the British Ethan Hayter (Ineos), the Australian Harry Sweeny (Lotto-Soudal), the Spanish José Herrada (Cofidis) and the Irishman Sam Bennett (Bora), winner of two stages and in the fight for the green jersey.
The day before, during the rest day, the names of Mathias Norsgaard (Movistar) and Jarrad Drizners (Lotto-Soudal) had joined the growing list of dropouts due to a positive Covid-19 test. In total, at least 20 of the 32 casualties in the peloton since the start of the Vuelta are linked to a positive test and the spread of the virus has accelerated in recent days, with 16 cases detected since Friday.
Riders and teams criticize that it is the tests that force them to get off the bike and not the symptoms. The International Cycling Union (UCI) implemented the same health protocol for the Vuelta as in the Tour de France, with daily monitoring through antigenic tests of all team members (riders and staff). Seventeen riders had to leave there, a number that has been exceeded in the Spanish round in eleven days.
