00:00Stage 19 takes us back to the mountains with a summit finish on Peñas Blancas.
00:05So far, Henrik Maas has outperformed his rivals on the climbs, but as his teammate Ivan Romeo
00:10points out, the race ain't over till it's over.
00:14I hope I can help Henrik like we've done every day, either from the break or the peloton.
00:19We'll try to keep him covered all day long so he doesn't run into trouble.
00:22We know the Vuelta lasts for 21 days, that red jerseys have even been lost on the very
00:27final day, so the battle continues all the way to Granada.
00:31Primoz Roglic and Felix Gall haven't found any cracks in Mas' armour just yet, but they'll
00:36continue to probe in the final days of the race.
00:39Today is going to be very long.
00:41It's not the hardest mountaintop finish, but it's a very long day with a very long last
00:49climb and also it's the day after TT where you can sometimes see some surprises.
00:57Peñas Blancas was Richard Carapaz in 2022, the year he finished a long way back on GC.
01:02This year he's set to come fourth.
01:07Peñas Blancas is a very long and very tough climb, but of course I have fond memories of
01:11it.
01:12It'll be a bit different today, but I'm always keen to give it a go.
01:16I think that the next two days suit me pretty well, so why not?
01:23The fight will also be on for the top ten overall, although Harold Tejada admits it won't be easy
01:28getting into the breakaway with the GC teams on high alerts.
01:33Everyone wants to hold their position now.
01:35Movistar might say, OK, you're nine or ten minutes back, you can go in the break, but then
01:39the teams in fourth and fifth overall will start to ride.
01:42We'll try to play our cards, of course, and by tomorrow everybody will be in their rightful
01:47place.
01:48The climbs will put everybody in their rightful place.
01:55Stage 19 is the longest of this Vuelta, 210 kilometers with around 4,000 meters of elevation
02:01gain.
02:02There were two Cat 2 climbs in the middle of the day before the main event, Peñas Blancas,
02:07almost 19 kilometers at 6.5 percent.
02:15The riders absolutely blitzed their way through the flat early part of the stage, covering
02:20almost 52 kilometers in the first hour.
02:23Lots of teams trying to get men into a breakaway, and there were still fireworks as they hit the
02:28first climb after more than 75k.
02:31The attacks just keep coming from the peloton.
02:35It's absolutely relentless on Stage 19.
02:38There's still no real breakaway.
02:40It's only 32 seconds, and these riders want to try and get up the road.
02:47Well things might have been expected to settle down a bit on the Puerto de las Abejas, but
02:51not a bit of it.
02:52Lots of riders still buzzing around the front of the peloton.
02:56The Stage 7 winner, Andreas Leknason, was part of a small leading group and took
03:00maximum points at the summit before Jürgen Nordhagen led them down a short descent.
03:06Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
03:09He was almost off the road.
03:13They soon embarked on the second climb, the Puerto del Viento, and after a regrouping
03:17at the front, Eddie Dunbar attacked solo.
03:20The Irishman opening up a small gap, but there were still riders coming across from the peloton.
03:25The chase group behind featured Leknason and another stage winner, Bastien Tranchant, plus
03:31Kevin Vermarker and Pablo Castrillo, a teammate of Henrik Maas.
03:34Dunbar reaching the top as things began to stir in the GC group.
03:40Carapace goes on the attack.
03:41Here's the moment.
03:44Carapace has decided to go with 95 kilometres of racing remaining.
03:49Carapace setting the cat among the pigeons somewhat, given that he began the day fourth
03:53overall and soon linking up with a teammate, Darren Rafferty, but a drop chain for the Irishman
03:59upset EF's plans and Carapace was soon brought back.
04:02The breakaway would finally be able to break away properly.
04:11The gap quickly swelled out to four minutes, and the further they went into the stage,
04:15the more likely it looked that the breakaway would contest the victory.
04:1916 at the front, with the best placed overall, Guillaume Martanguillone, over 20 minutes down.
04:25Santiago Burutraga was also there in the polka dot jersey, with Urko Berrade and the Spanish
04:30champion Marcel Campruvi, plus a lot of the day's earlier attackers, Dunbar, Vermarker,
04:35Lechnesund, Tranchon and Castrillo.
04:38The gap reaching five and a half minutes, with 45k to go.
04:44At the foot of Peñas Blancas, the break led by over seven minutes, so they would definitely
04:49fight for a prestigious stage win.
04:5118 kilometres remaining, but who still had a bit of power in the legs in week three of
04:56what has been a bruising Grand Tour?
04:57Rudy Muller leading the way.
05:00Further back, Red Bull Bora-Hansgrohe had taken control of the peloton, lining something
05:04up for Primoz Roglic, while at the front, after a final effort from Paul Mikel,
05:09Buutraga attacked in his bid for a first of Welter's stage win.
05:14That's it, game over.
05:17Now Buutraga needs to go.
05:19Intent on the face of Buutraga, the king of the mountains, and he starts to ride away.
05:25The only man who could hold the Colombians' will was Thomas Gloge of Pinarello Q36.5,
05:31but his teammate Dunbar soon joined them as well, along with Berrade of Kern Farmer.
05:36Those four men leading the way up the climb, followed by a chase group containing Lechnesund,
05:41Matanguione, Hamilton, Camprubi and Famarca, but they were losing ground.
05:46Still no action back in the peloton, with Movistar setting the pace again,
05:50but would anybody try to attack the man in red, Enric Maas?
06:00With just over two kilometres to go, Buutraga upped the pace once again.
06:04The Bahrain victorious man trying desperately to go solo and rubber stamp his polka-dot jersey with a win,
06:10but he couldn't get rid of Eddie Dunbar, winning in Padran and on Picon Blanco two years ago.
06:16The Irishman slowly reeling him back in, 600 metres to go,
06:20and what did both men have left in the tank?
06:24Look at this, it looks as though Buutraga can't go, and here goes Dunbar now.
06:29A massive attack from Eddie Dunbar. He catches the Colombian with inside 500 metres of this mountain.
06:37Eddie Dunbar has gone flying away. It's a massive attack from the Irishman.
06:43Five hours of racing. Eddie Dunbar is going to completely change his season. He's won two stages in La Vuelta
06:52before.
06:52He's inside the final 150. He sees the gantry now. This rider has talked about how tough it's been in
07:00the last year.
07:00Well, now all that can be forgotten because Eddie Dunbar is going to win in La Vuelta again.
07:07He sees the gantry. He's going to win this stage for Pinarello.
07:12Q 36.5. It's three stage wins in La Vuelta. Dunbar wins stage 19.
07:22There wasn't too much to report in the GC group with the top five all together after Roglic had thinned
07:28out the bunch.
07:29Omrazel and Berte were also up there with the Slovenian trying his luck in the final.
07:35Gal leading in Carapace, Roglic, Onli and Mas.
07:43Eddie Dunbar timed it to absolute perfection today, overhauling Vuittrago to take his third
07:49stage win at La Vuelta after that double in 24. They now account for half of his career victories.
07:55The Irishman suffered a nasty ankle injury in March when he was hit by a scooter, but six months later
08:01he's back to winning ways, and he has taken the first triumph for Pinarello Q 36.5 at a Grand
08:08Tour.
08:11This year I had, what, three months out where I didn't ride a bike at all after a bad accident,
08:17and yeah, I really didn't think I'd be here and even competing for stages let alone, yeah, just be here,
08:28so yeah, I can't believe it.
08:37Dunbar taking a brilliant win ahead of Vuittrago with two of his teammates inside the top five.
08:42Glogue, who more than played his part, and Camp Ruby. The peloton came in over five minutes down.
08:50Once again, Mas was untouchable on the climbs. The Spaniard goes into the final mountain stage,
08:56still leading by one minute 37. Christian Rodriguez is up to eighth place, ahead of Matias Skielmoza.
09:03Wout van Aert is two days away from winning the points classification.
09:07Vuittrago second for the second time at this Vuelta after Marco Brenner pipped him on Sierra
09:12de la Pandera, but he has pretty much sewn up the polka dot jersey.
09:17And only gained a couple more seconds on Omrazel in the final.
09:20He leads the Slovenian by a minute and three seconds before tomorrow's mountain blockbuster.
09:26Stage 20 features four big climbs and nearly 5,000 meters of elevation gain.
09:32It's an absolute monster. Join us for that on Saturday, and thanks for watching.
