Primoz Roglic gains time on Remco Evenepoel as red jersey cracks and Richard Carapaz wins dramatic Stage 14

ByFelix Lowe

Updated 03/09/2022 at 17:45 GMT

Remco Evenepoel dug deep to limit his losses to Primoz Roglic and his red jersey rivals on La Pandera as Richard Carapaz swooped to Stage 14 glory for his second wins in three days. Ecuador’s Olympic champion was the last man standing from a 10-man breakaway and had the legs to hold off Miguel Angel Lopez and Roglic in a thrilling finale in the Sierra Sur de Jaen mountains.

Boy, do we have a race on our hands… Defending champion Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) reignited the battle for red at La Vuelta with a stinging attack on the final climb of La Pandera to drop race leader Remco Evenepoel (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl) and put the Belgian under serious pressure for the first time during his nine-day reign at the top.

An explosive climax to Stage 14 on Saturday saw Evenepoel dropped with four kilometres remaining of the third and final climb of the day. Colombia’s Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana-Qazaqstan) and Enric Mas (Movistar) were the only riders capable of clawing their way back onto Roglic’s wheel – although the Spaniard Mas was tailed off before the finish.

Ecuador’s Richard Carapaz (Ineos Grenadiers) was the only figure from a 10-man move to survive the onslaught as the GC fireworks detonated behind in spectacular fashion. The Olympic champion held on to take the win by eight seconds ahead of Lopez and Roglic to secure his second win in three days – and put down a marker in the polka dot jersey competition.

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Evenepoel showed his class to limit his losses to Roglic and his red jersey rivals, the Belgian crossing the line 56 seconds down for eighth place alongside Spanish tyro Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates), who had picked up an untimely puncture inside the closing kilometres of the race.

Roglic’s roll of the dice saw the triple champion slash his deficit to 1’49” behind Evenepoel ahead of Sunday’s all-important high-altitude finish in the Sierra Nevada mountains.

Two days after crashing on a descent, Evenepoel had no answer to the Slovenian’s stinging attack and was soon distanced by Lopez and the Spanish trio of Mas, Ayuso and Carlos Rodriguez (Ineos Grenadiers). But the 22-year-old Belgian did not let his head slump – and a mini revival on the sweltering climb saw him peg back Ayuso en route to finishing strongly.

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Portugal’s Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) took fourth place ahead of Spanish champion Rodriguez, Mas and the Dutchman Thymen Arensman (Team DSM). Both Lopez and Almeida rose a place to sixth and seventh while Dutchman Wilco Kelderman (Bora-Hansgrohe) dropped to eighth after taking tenth place on the stage and keeping his dream of winning a maiden Grand Tour alive.

Watch Roglic attack Evenepoel as red jersey cracks for first time at La Vuelta

Victory for Carapaz saw the 29-year-old move to within 14 points of Australia’s Jay Vine (Alpecin-Deceuninck) in the polka dot jersey classification. With both riders locked on two wins each, the battle for the king of the mountains competition promises to be almost as compelling as the fight for red in Stage 15, which concludes on the Alto Hoya de la Mora – at 2,510 metres, the highest peak in the race.

The same cannot be said for the green jersey battle, which is being comfortably controlled by Friday’s Stage 13 winner Mads Pedersen. The Dane was one of two Trek-Segafredo riders in the breakaway on Saturday, winning the intermediate sprint between the first two climbs to extend his lead to 151 points over his nearest competitors.

Over 70km had been swallowed up in breakneck speed by the time Stage 12 winner Carapaz went clear with Alexey Lutsenko (Astana-Qazaqstan) in what was the latest in a seemingly interminable stream of attacks that had rained down since the start of the 160km stage at Montoro.

A flat course and an average speed of 49kmph over the opening 90 minutes of riding made for a fast and furious start – with the peloton giving little leeway to any aspiring escapees. But once Carapaz and Lutsenko were joined by Clement Champoussin (Ag2R-Citroen), Luis Leon Sanchez (Bahrain Victorious), Bruno Armirail (Groupama-FDJ), Filippo Conca (Lotto Soudal) and Trek-Segafredo duo Pedersen and Kenny Elissonde, it finally seemed like this was the move that would stick.

Reinforcements came in the form of Marco Brenner (Team DSM) and Raul Garcia Piedra (Kern Pharma), who managed to bridge over to give the break its full quota of 10 riders with 75km remaining. The gap grew to a maximum of four and a half minutes as Evenepoel’s Quick-Step team-mates controlled the tempo behind ahead of the climbs.

Richard Carapaz (Ineos Grenadiers) leads the breakaway in Stage 14 of La Vuelta 2022

Image credit: Getty Images

Carapaz led the break over the summit of the first climb before Pedersen bowed out after bagging the sprint points in Jaen. With 20km remaining, Lutsenko and Sanchez forced the initial shake out on the Puerto de los Villares as the advantage of the leaders started to come down once Roglic’s team-mate Chris Harper came to the front and upped the tempo.

Veteran Spaniard Sanchez edged clear to crest the summit ahead of Carapaz and Elissonde before a quartet formed on the final 8.6km ascent of La Pandera: Carapaz, Sanchez, Champoussin and Conca.

Jumbo-Visma’s pace behind shredded the pack and reduced the gap to under a minute. Once news of Roglic’s attack filtered through, Carapaz was forced to take matters into his own hand – the clear favourite riding clear in pursuit of a second stage win.

Carapaz explains how he won Stage 14 at La Vuelta

But such was the ferocity of Roglic’s attack that Carapaz still had it all to do. With Mas and Lopez joining forces with the Slovenian, the result was very much in the balance entering the final kilometre with the gap dropping below 10 seconds.

The initial summit of the climb, however, offered Carapaz some tonic, and he was able to gather his strength on the sweeping descent ahead of the last ramp to the line. Behind, Evenepoel went deep into the pain cave to ensure his reign in red entered a tenth day. But with the pendulum of this Vuelta now swinging in favour of Roglic, Evenepoel will have to prove himself all again on Sunday’s queen stage in Sierra Nevada.

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