CYCLING – TEAM Bahrain Victorious rider Pau Miquel secured an impressive top 10 finish yesterday in the 17th stage of the 81st La Vuelta a Espana in Spain.
Miquel was the best finisher for the kingdom’s squad for the second successive leg. The Spaniard completed yesterday’s 185-kilometre route in seventh place, part of a bunch sprint to the finish spearheaded by winner Matthew Brennan of Team Visma-Lease a Bike, who completed the stage in four hours seven minutes and 15 seconds.
Amongst Bahrain Victorious’ other riders yesterday, Slovenians Jakob Omrzel and Matevz Govekar followed in 40th and 43rd, respectively, Dutchman Mathijs Paasschens was 66th, Roman Ermakov, also from Slovenia, came 85th, Colombian Santiago Buitrago was 91st, Hungarian Attila Valter 97th, and Spaniard Pello Bilbao was 102nd.
Buitrago maintained his hold on the King of the Mountains blue-and-white polkadot jersey, while Omrzel stayed as the best-ranked Bahrain Victorious member in the general classification in sixth. Omrzel was also still in second on the best young rider standings.
This year’s 21-stage La Vuelta a Espana continues today with stage 18, which is an individual time trial set to cover 32.1km. It is the second-shortest route of the elite men’s road race, which features a total distance of 3,296.6km.
La Vuelta a Espana is the third and final grand tour of this international cycling season, following the Giro d’Italia in May and the Tour de France in July.