CYCLING – Team Bahrain Victorious’ Santiago Buitrago held on to the King of the Mountains (KOM) jersey yesterday in a demanding 10th stage of the 81st La Vuelta a Espana – the third and final grand tour of the international cycling season.
Buitrago completed the 184.7-kilometre leg in 53rd position to successfully defend the blue-and-white polkadot overalls.
The Colombian joined a large group of riders for a tricky sprint finale.
Spanish teammate Pello Bilbao was Bahrain Victorious’ best finisher yesterday, just missing out on the top 10 in 14th.
He was not far behind stage winner Bastien Tronchon of Groupama-FDJ United, who triumphed in four hours seven minutes and 41 seconds.
Slovenian Jakob Omrzel was 42nd for the kingdom’s squad, Hungarian Attila Valter came 60th, Spanird Pau Miquel was 62nd, Slovenian Roman Ermakov finished 103rd, and Dutchman Mathijs Paasschens and Matevz Govekar, also from Slovenia, completed the Bahrain Victorious finishers in 130th and 156th, respectively.
With yesterday’s results, Omrzel remained the team’s top-ranked competitor in the general classification in 10th.
He is also second in the best young rider ranking, where he is five minutes and 45 seconds behind leader Oscar Onley of Netcompany Ineos.
This season’s 21-stage Vuelta a Espana continues today with stage 11 covering 153.8km, part of the elite men’s road race’s total distance of 3,296.6km.
La Vuelta a Espana follows the other two grand tours of the season, which were the Giro d’Italia in May and the Tour de France last month.