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Hello there and welcome along to our live coverage of stage 14 of the Vuelta a España.
It's the longest day of the race, at a shade over 200km, and we have yet more climbing on the menu, with a late cat-1 climb followed by a descent to the line. However, unlike yesterday's savage final ascent, today's climbing is more modest in gradient, and big GC fireworks are more likely to be reserved for tomorrow's monster summit finish. The breakaway men will be particularly interested today.
The riders have just rolled out from Villafranca del Bierzo and are making their way through the neutral zone. Not long before the race will be underway.
Here's a closer look at the profile. There's a long drag and a stiff hike to the cat-3 climb at the half-way point, ahead of the cat-1 test later on. It looks fairly imposing there and while it's 22.8km long, it has an average gradient of 4.5%, and a steady one at that, making it hard for the GC men to force any meaningful separation.
Before we get going, now's the time to catch up on yesterday's action, and there was plenty of it. Stage 13 report and results here.
One non-starter today and that's Cofidis' Ruben Fernandez. Easy to forget the Spaniard won the Tour de l'Avenir back in the day - he hasn't quite had the career that most l'Avenir winners go on to enjoy.
We're off
The flag is waved and stage 14 is underway. Here come the first attacks.
Thomas De Gendt (Lotto Dstny) goes solo for a little while but it's all back together.
Riley Sheehan (Israel-Premier Tech) kicks off the next wave of attacks.
All together again as we rattle along at over 50km/h. A start like this will make the Vuelta's longest day feel a little less long.
It's still raining attacks and it's still all together.
A ticket to this breakaway as hard to find as Oasis right now.
Thibault Guernalec (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) is the latest to come through the queue for the queue, the lobby, the real queue, and into the bagging area... but will it crash on him?
Yep it's back to square one, as 12 more go after him and the whole thing comes back together.
18 in the latest move but it's going nowhere (on a train).
A three-man move goes clear: Jhonatan Narváez (Ineos Grenadiers), Xandro Meurisse (Alpecin-Deceuninck), Marco Frigo (Israel-Premier Tech).
They're joined now by Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates), who may still have COVID-19, with more springing from behind.
We've done an hour now, and almost 50km on the clock. A flying start and it's still not settled but it does look now like a breakaway could be properly forming.
Victor Campenaerts (Lotto Dstny) and Harold Tejada (Astana-Qazaqstan) make it up to the break now to make it six. The small group from which they jumped has been swallowed up and the peloton is still close at hand...
Official average speed for the first hour: 48.7km/h.
The gap goes out past 30 seconds and it looks like this could be our break of the day.
Here's the original trio plus latecomer Del Toro in second wheel.
And here's the full six-man break as it now stands with added Campenaerts and Tejada
Bahrain Victorious, who had been keen but missed out on this move, flirted with the idea of bringing it back but the gap is now up at 90 seconds after 62km, and this looks very much like our day's breakaway.
Visma-Lease a Bike have now come to the front of the bunch to control things, and it looks like they're pegging the gap at a modest 2:30 as things stand.
The road is steadily dragging uphill towards our first climb, the category-3 Puerto de Cerredo (7km at 4.6%).
The gap stands just above the two-minute mark, and that's not a stage-winning margin for our breakaway as things stand.
Visma on the front as we come to the foot of the first climb. This would appear to be a play for a fourth stage win through Wout van Aert. We know he can sprint - can he get over our late category-1 climb to earn the right to today? His team clearly think so...
The breakaway hit the Puerto de Cerredo (7km at 4.6%), but their lead is below two minutes now.
Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates) wears the polka-dot mountains jersey today but it's only on loan from the green jersey wearer Wout van Aert. Climbing and sprinting is certainly the combination required from him today, and a fourth win would make this a sensational Vuelta for a rider who has had a torrid season. More from him here:
Wout van Aert adds Vuelta a España mountains jersey to points classification lead on Puerto Ancares
Meurisse attacks at the top of the Puerto de Cerredo to take the maximum three mountains points ahead of Frigo and Campenaerts.
Visma-Lease a Bike lead the peloton over the top at 1:48 down.
The six breakaway men are still working well together but they're facing a huge task here, even before the last climb, to stay away.
"How does a rider lose a Vuelta a España lead to Primož Roglič? Two ways, it seems. Gradually, then suddenly..."
So starts Barry Ryan's latest GC analysis piece from the Vuelta. Have a read:
The break did seem to be collaborating well, and they've taken their lead back out past two minutes, but there's some bickering going on now, Del Toro asking questions of Meurisse.
The break have found a little more ground but there are six of them and Visma have been controlling things with two men so far, so there'll be a decent level of firepower left for the final climb, not to mention any of the other teams who might want to work.
Looking at this breakaway, it's a strong group and a good mix of riders. If more than one were to come to the finish to sprint it out, Narváez, who beat Tadej Pogačar in a two-up sprint on the opening day of the Giro d'Italia, might well be the fastest, although young talent Del Toro has a frightening turn of pace, too. Tejada and Frigo are solid climbers, and Meurisse also goes well uphill despite being a heavier type. The weakest climber on paper would be Campenaerts but this is going to be a strange climb where things can become tactical and a number of outcomes are possible.
That said, as the gap comes down below two minutes again, it doesn't look likely any of them will be playing for the victory - with the winner instead set to come from the bunch if things continue like this.
55km to go now and we're coming to the base of this long descent. We have an intermediate sprint in Cangas del Narcea followed by an 11km false flat ahead of the start of the key cat-1 climb.
Meurisse leads the breakaway through the intermediate sprint.
The gap has fallen again on the approach to the climb. It's down to 90 seconds.
Edoardo Affini and Robert Gesink have been the two men in charge for the peloton today, with climbers like Steven Kruijswijk, Attila Valter, and Cian Uijtebroeks able to step up later on. Even the defending champion Sepp Kuss has turned domestique to tee up a Van Aert victory already at this Vuelta.
The six breakaway men hit the climb of Puerto de Leitareigos, their lead now hovering just above the one-minute mark.
Immediate split in the break! Narvaez goes clear with Tejada and Frigo. The other three are distanced significantly already.
Gesink continues his effort onto the climb.
Del Toro, Campenaerts, and Meurisse are already 30 seconds down on their three former breakaway companions. That's only 30 seconds up on the bunch and it's curtains for them, surely.
Gesink looks to be fading but suddenly reappears at the front of the bunch for another turn. They're closing in on three of the break but three more are still 1:10 out front.
Meurisse, Campenaerts and Del Toro are swallowed up by the Visma-led peloton, 19km from the summit.
Gesink is finally, definitively done now, and it's over to Uijtdebroeks, the Belgian talent who has had a disappointing debut season at Visma and has been complaining of numb legs at this Vuelta.
Kruijswijk is second wheel, ready to take the next turn, while race leader Ben O'Connor's Decathlon-AG2R teammates sit behind them.
Here's a visualisation of this climb - it's as steady as they come and, frankly, a little dull.
Narvaez, Tejada, and Frigo are doing well to hold the bunch at one minute but they still have more than 15km until the top.
The gap falls to 55 seconds.
45 seconds now and this isn't looking good at all for the breakaway. Van Aert looks comfortable in the bunch.
The peloton is still numerous. We're talking about Van Aert's team setting this up, but we'll see how many other sprinters remain in contention. It's a long climb and it has been given cat-1 status but we might see a surprisingly large group getting over this.
30 seconds now for the breakaway trio and we still have 9.5km to climb. It's not going to happen for them today.
Tejada realises as much and pulls the plug, sitting up and drifting back. And then there were two.
Narvaez piles on the pressure and the gap goes back out to 40 seconds.
Narvaez attacks!
The Ecuadorian accepts one final turn from Frigo and then hits him.
Uijtdebroeks's turn is done. He's really suffering there and that also explains why the gap has drifted back out. Over to Steven Kruijswijk...
Kruijswijk has upped the tempo and the gap is tumbling now.
Frigo is caught 5.3km from the top, so just Narvaez left out ahead of a very sizeable peloton.
Narvaez is now in sight and it's soon to be all over for the break.
Back together
That's it. Narvaez is caught, passed, and reabsorbed into the bunch, just over 3km from the summit of the Puerto de Leitariegos.
A change in the bunch now as Tao Geoghegan Hart from Lidl-Trek comes to the front to take over from Visma.
Kruijswijs was pretty much done and while Van Aert still has Kuss and Valter there, they're further down the bunch and don't come through. What have Lidl-Trek got up their sleeves?
This is still near enough a full peloton... bunch sprint day then!
Into the final kilometre of the climb and more teams accelerate but this now looks more about securing a good position for the descent.
Into the clouds here and the visibility is low. It could be a chilly 10km descent.
QuickStep take it up over the top of the Puerto de Leitariegos, with Van Aert poised just behind them, perhaps looking for more KOM points.
Indeed, Van Aert skips clear to add to his lead in the mountains classification.
So we have a Van Aert who not only has made it over this cat-1 climb but still looks incredibly fresh. What's more, no one else has really been found out here, so we're heading for a big bunch sprint, and cat-1 here has to be the most mis-leading stretch we've seen in a while.
As with the climb, the descent is wide, relatively gentle, and non-technical, so not the sort of descent than can be attacked to any great effect.
Mechanical for Roglic!!
Bike change needed from a teammate as the three-time champ is forced to stop, and now to chase...
Roglic is getting as aero as possible as he attempts to plug the hole that has opened. He should be able to manage it.
We have a time gap now and it's 30 seconds but in reality it's much less to the tail end of the peloton.
Roglic has found a couple of teammates now.
A few splits in the peloton on the way down here. Just over 10km to go
The pace at the front is not super high right now.
Roglic can now see the rear of the bunch and he'll be confident he can finish the job now.
Roglic is back. Panic over.
Just over 5km to go now and the road is about to flatten out for our run-in. Who's going to take control?
Alpecin-Deceuninck - that's who. Kaden Groves has already beaten Van Aert at this Vuelta - can he do it again?
Other sprinters to watch are DSM's Pavel Bittner, Israel-Premier Tech's Corbin Strong, and Kern Pharma's Pau Miquel.
Alpecin have five on the front. Van Aert, who has already burned all of his teammates setting this stage up, has latched onto the back of their train.
2.5km to go and this looks like it could be a straightforward lead-out from Alpecin followed by a mano a mano between Groves and Van Aert.
When Alpecin have led out, Van Aert has looked to jump early, spring the surprise and take the better line. Surely Groves will be scared of that happening again.
Big roundabout and left-hander. 1.2km to go and DSM take it up
Into the final k and it bunches up after a lull in pace...
Left-hander through 500 to go and Alpecin are back ont he front.
Here's the lead out, Van Aert back on Groves' wheel
Groves does open up first
Van Aert comes back at him!
On the throw, and Groves takes it!
Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck) wins stage 14 of the Vuelta a España
What a sprint that was. Groves hit out first on the left, Van Aert sprang out on the right, and actually started to pull back up alongside before Groves found another burst before the throw.
Results
Let's hear from the winner, Kaden Groves.
"It feels really good. I didn't actually expect today to be a sprint as it was but Jumbo [Visma sic] controlled it and to have a man on man sprint against Wout is pretty awesome.
"On the climb I was quite ok in the wheels. I thought it would be hard if they started attacking but thankfully Jumbo just rode a hard pace and no one attacked, and thankfully my teammates also got over with me so we could control the finish.
"Today I didn't hesitate, I think I did a really good sprint. It felt like a drag race against Wout but it was great to beat him."
A disappointing day for Van Aert, whose teammates worked to control the entire stage, only for Alpecin and Groves to mug them at the end. Perhaps they expected to do a little more damage on the climb. Perhaps Van Aert has been dulled slightly by his all-action displays at this Vuelta, which included a breakaway yesterday. Perhaps someone was simply faster on the day.
The winner's shot
And here's a shot of the sprint in full flow
No change in the general classification as all the overall contenders finished safely in the peloton. Ben O'Connor takes the red jersey into tomorrow's monster mountain stage that will round out the second week, and he does so with a lead of 1:21 over Primoz Roglic, and a further 1:40 over Enric Mas.
Here's what's in store tomorrow. Cuitu Negru makes the two cat-1 climbs look like mere pimples. Huge day.
