Jesús Herrada of Cofidis took a brilliant stage win at La Vuelta today - after Ineos Grenadiers gave the best of the breakaway men an armchair ride to the line on La Laguna Negra Vinuesa.
And while Herrada's win, especially his final kick for the line from a long way out, was very impressive, his team soigneur managed to take some of the limelight from from.
Herrada was leading solo and sprinting for the line inside the final 100m but was still being chased down by Romain Grégoire (Groupama-FDJ) and stage 2 winner Andreas Kron (Lotto Dstny). At that point, it all got a bit too much for Herrada's soigneur.
Standing in the scrum beyond the finish line, the excitable staff member stepped out into the middle of the road to encourage his man to the line, jumping up and down and blocking the TV cameras and photographers in the process.
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When initial efforts by race officials to coax him back into the sidelines failed, the soigneur was effectively rugby tackled by a big Spanish police officer in the finish area. The staff and police were clearly anxious to avoid a repeat of the scenes on stage 3, when Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) won the day and then crashed into a woman just after the line, which was packed with people.
Luckily there were no crashes or injuries this time around. And the drama was only heightened by Herrada, after a fantastic effort to win, collapsed into the arms of the soigneur just after the line.
A very large breakaway - containing Ineos Grenadiers duo Geraint Thomas and Filippo Ganna - survived out front to fight for stage honours, gaining over five minutes on the reduced peloton. However, while Ganna tried to shred the group for Thomas as the final climb progressed, his efforts only set-up those riders in the group with more kick that Thomas.
When Jonathan Caicedo (EF Education-EasyPost) attacked with just under 2km to go, Thomas panicked, went to the front and closed the gap to him. That left Herrada to put in a much strong kick deep inside the final kilometre to win the stage.
He was best - taking the third Vuelta stage win of his career - by three seconds from Grégoire, with Kron 3rd at six seconds and then Caicedo at 12 seconds. Thomas - who tried to grind his way to victory but had no kick for the finish - was 5th at 20 seconds.
However, Thomas at least had the consolation of gaining 5:31 on the favourites group, which was led home by Evenepoel, who sprinted in for 28th place, 5:50 down on the stage winner. There is no change in the overall, with Sepp Kuss (Jumbo Visma) still leading the race by 26 seconds from Marc Soler (Team Movistar), with Evenepoel in 3rd at 1:09.
Thomas only moved up by three places overall, but is gain of 5:31 on the favourites brings him much closer to the top 10. He is now 18th at 7:34, some 4:20 down on Aleksandr Vlasov (Bora-hansgrohe) in 10th.
