Ireland's Conor Dunne gathers himself at the top of the 12km Pandera summit finish climb. He had just finish having spent more than five hot hours in the saddle on the Vuelta (Photo: Karen M Edwards)
Conor Dunne survives searing heat at Vuelta
Having received a boost with a new bus to replace the one lost in an arson attack last week, Aqua Blue Sport as once again in the Vuelta breakaway on stage 14.
This time it was the turn of Stefan Denifl, the Austrian who claimed the Tour of Austria in July.
Conor Dunne is the sole Irish rider in the Aqua Blue Sport team on this Vuelta. And he finished in the grupetto yesterday.
Some 50 men wisely stuck together to ensure survival and they finished 29:09 down.
As Karen M Edwards’ photos of Conor Dunne at the finish show, it was an extremely tough day in the saddle.
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The Aqua Blue Sport staff feed Stefan Denifl in the breakaway on yesterday's stage 14 of La Vuelta (Photos: KarenMEdwards)
The 175km stage from Écija to Sierra de La Pandera featured a summit finish. But that didn’t prevent a frantic start.
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And after some 20km of racing the day’s breakaway would form. The winner would come from it, though all of the other riders would be caught from behind.
In the escape with Aqua Blue Sport’s Denifl was eventual stage winner Rafal Majka. His Bora-hansgrohe team mate Patrick Konrad was also there.
Another team represented by two men was Cannondale-Drapac; Simon Clarke and king of the mountains Davide Villella making the cut.
Also present were Luis Angel Mate (Cofidis), Alexis Gougeard (AG2R-La Mondiale), Ricardo Vilela (Manzana Postobon), Rui Costa (UAE Team Emirates) and Bart De Clercq (Lotto-Soudal).
The gap would go to five and then seven minutes. And the strongest up front did not wait until the final climb to press hard.
Konrad was clearly working for Majka and his attack on the cat 2 Alto de Locubin split the breakaway, with Denifl one of the victims.
Soon after that action came the feared HC Pandera; the 12km climb to the finish.
Majka proved too strong on the early slopes. The Pole pulled away from those he was with to claim a solo victory.
Denifl would finish in 66th at 20:27, but having ridden very well.
The stage had started in what claims to be Spain’s hottest town; a point Denifl wasn’t arguing with at the finish.
“I’d pretty good legs in the beginning,” he said. “I didn’t follow every attack.
“I was just waiting until a group was settled. And then Mark (Christian) helped me to jump over.
“I had a pretty good feeling in the start. But in the heat; every kilometre (I was) getting more and more tired.
“My core got so hot I was just suffering, suffering. In the end it was such a hard day.”
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