La Vuelta a Espana 2020 – Primoz Roglic wins Stage 8 to slash Richard Carapaz’s lead

Primoz Roglic reasserted his authority in Stage 8 of La Vuelta by surging clear of Richard Carapaz on the Alto de Moncavillo to take a second win of the race and move within 13 seconds of the Ecuadorian's red jersey.

After Carapaz (Ineos Grenadiers) put in a dig in the final kilometre of the 160km stage through the beautiful region of La Rioja in northern Spain, Jumbo-Visma's Roglic, in the green jersey, threw down the hammer with a counterpunch which landed his rival on the canvas.

The Slovenian powerhouse made light of the double-digit gradient of a deciding climb making its first appearance on the Vuelta, Roglic coming home 13 seconds clear of the battling Carapaz to move from fourth to second in the general classification.

Ireland's Dan Martin (Israel Start-Up Nation) took third place ahead of Russia's Aleksandr Vlasov of Astana to retain his third place on GC, while Britain's Hugh Carthy, who had ridden clear earlier on the climb after being launched by his EF Pro Cycling teammate Michael Woods, faded to fifth place as he dropped two places to fourth, now 44 seconds in arrears.

The Movistar team of the white jersey Enric Mas set a hefty tempo going onto the climb, killing off the chances of a seven-man break after tearing the peloton in two. But Mas, runner-up on La Vuelta in 2018, was unable to cope with the regular accelerations from the rivals for red as he slinked to a seventh-place finish behind a resurgent Wout Poels of Bahrain-McLaren.

Mas stays fifth in the standings but now trails Carapaz by 1'54" while Dutchman Poels enters the top 10 at the expense of Roglic's New Zealand teammate, George Bennett.

Roglic's second win of the 2020 Vuelta was a thing of both beauty and brute force, the 30-year-old defending champion biding his time while American teammate Sepp Kuss hunted down Carthy's early attack, before responding to the numerous digs put in by the impressive Carapaz.

When Vlasov skipped clear of a group containing Roglic, Carapaz, Martin and Carthy with 2km remaining, it looked like the Astana rider – almost seven minutes down on the GC – was going to be allowed to snare the win.

But the insatiable Roglic had other thoughts. Sensing a chance to double his tally while eating into Carapaz's lead, the man who finished runner-up in the Tour de France darted clear to pass Vlasov under the kilometre-to-go banner.

Easing up, he allowed Carapaz to rejoin him on the front, with the 2019 Giro d'Italia champion stepping on the pedals with 850 metres to go. But Roglic had enough in the tank to latch on before leaving the Ecuadorian for dead in an exciting finale on a climb that will surely return again in La Vuelta.

Victory on the Alto de Moncavillo saw Roglic move within 13 seconds of the red jersey while extending his lead in the green jersey standings over the Ineos Grenadier leader. Frenchman Guillaume Martin of Cofidis, meanwhile, could only take 14th place but retained his lead in the king of the mountains polka dot jersey standings.

The day did not get off to the best start for Roglic, who lost key mountain lieutenant Tom Dumoulin after the Dutchman decided to retire from the race citing lingering fatigue from the Tour de France. Carapaz, too, entered the stage a further man down following the withdrawal of fellow Ineos Grenadier Michal Golas of Poland.

After a fast start to proceedings, a break of seven riders finally formed on the front after a frantic opening 20km through the browning vines of La Rioja.

Robert Stannard (Mitchelton-Scott), Stan Dewulf (Lotto Soudal), Benjamin Dyball (NTT Pro Cycling), Angel Madrazo (Burgos-BH), Rui Costa (UAE Team Emirates), Julien Simon (Total Direct Energie) and Rémi Cavagna (Deceuninck Quick-Step) built up a maximum lead of just under five minutes as the remaining five Ineos teammates of Carapaz kept a lid on the situation and set tempo in the pack.

Spanish duo Jhojan Garcia and Hector Saez of Caja Rural-Seguros RGA went on a suicide mission ahead of the first categorised test, the Cat.2 Puerto de la Rasa. While Saez peeled off at the start of the climb, Garcia was caught by the pack just ahead of the summit as the lead of the escapees came down to 2'30" following a sustained period of pressure from Movistar.

The Spanish team continued pressing on the descent to split the peloton in two and whittle things down to just 25 riders going onto the final climb, with Dewulf and Dyball the last riders of the break to be swept up inside the final 10km.

An early attack from former world champion Alejandro Valverde, however, was as good as it got for Movistar. His move was neutralised by Jumbo-Visma's Robert Gesink and Ineos' Andrey Amador before EF duo Woods and Carthy took things up.

In its first ever appearance in the Vuelta, the 8.4km Alto de Moncalvillo provided the backdrop for a fantastic finale as Tuesday's winner Woods launched Carthy with 3.5km remaining. The British rider opened up a gap with Kuss in tow, before Carapaz led the chase ahead of what looked to be the winning-move from Vlasov.

But rampant Roglic was in no mood for gifts. He showed off his good legs by reeling in Vlasov and then by responding to Carapaz's dig with a decisive jab of his own which blew up the race for red on the sun-kissed steep slopes of the Moncalvillo.

The Vuelta continues on Thursday with a rolling 157.7km Stage 9 from Castrillo del Val to Aguilar de Campoo which may reopen the door for the sprinters, although the terrain could play into the hands of a breakaway should the right blend of rider get clear.