Miguel Angel Lopez may have been the toast of the Movistar team just 48 hours ago when he won stage 18 of La Vuelta on the brutally hard Altu d'El Gamoniteiru but now the Colombian is in the news for very different reasons.
Having begun today 3rd overall, he missed a key split in the general classification group on the 202km stage 20 to Mos Castro de Herville. And after it became clear he was not going to get back to his GC rivals, and was slipping off the final podium, he abandoned.
Reports have suggested a flare-up inside the team, though the exact circumstances of his departure from the race - when he had ridden so well to this point, and with just one stage remaining - were not clear for some time after the stage finish.
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However, later this evening it was widely reported in the Spanish-speaking media that the team had told Lopez to stop chasing. He was ordered to stop because his team mate Enric Mas was in the group ahead and was absolutely cementing his 2nd place overall.
That instruction to Lopez by the team appears to have sent him over the edge. He abandoned the race out of frustration at being told he could not chase, meaning he was effectively relinquishing his chance to ride for the best GC result possible. However, he had slipped up earlier in the stage in being left behind.
On the third climb of the day - Alto de Mougás with just
over 50km remaining – the Ineos Grenadiers duo of Egan Bernal and then Adam Yates
attacked in a bid to split the general classification group.
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Those attacks saw the GC group break apart and many big
name riders missed the split, including Bernal, David de la Cruz (UAE Team
Emirates), Felix Großschartner (Bora-Hansgrohe) and López.
Up front, the Bahrain Victorious duo of Gino Mader and Jack Haig drove the pace, as Haig was riding into 3rd place overall. They were aided by race leader Primoz Roglic (Jumbo Visma) and Yates.
That commitment in the group meant they began to gain significant time on the López group. The gap was at four minutes on the penultimate climb, Alto de Prado, with 30km to go.
At that point, Spanish media began reporting that Lopez had climbed off his bike in frustration and that his team mate, Imanol Erviti, and Movistar’s head of performance, Patxi Vila, were trying to coax him back onto his bike.
However, those efforts came to nothing and having slipped to 6th in the virtual classification with about 30km to go, Lopez pulled out and did not finish the stage, which was won by Clément Champoussin (AG2R Citroën).
Champoussin had been in the early breakaway, which were all caught and dropped by the Roglic group. However, the French rider clawed his way way into the front group in the final 2km. And with about 1.6km to go he attacked it, got a gap and took a brilliant victory.
The French rider clinched the win by six seconds from Roglic, who now leads overall by 2:38 from Mas. Australian Haig is now up to 3rd, and into the podium position for the first time, at 4:48 and having ridden a brilliant race.
More to come.
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