The 20th stage of the Vuelta a Espana would be won by Ruben Plaza (Lampre-Merida) after a 110km solo breakaway. Jose Goncalves (Caja-Rural) was 2nd and Alessandro De Marchi (BMC Racing) was 3rd.
The stage saw a big breakaway of 38 riders go clear on the slopes of the first climb of the day. MTN-Qhubeka p/b Samsung had Jaco Venter represented in the move while also in the group was David Arroyo (Caja-Rural). The Spaniard was around 7 minutes behind our Louis Meintjes and so we had to keep the break in check. This promoted Plaza to attack the leaders with 110km to go, a brave move that proved successful.
The race behind though was thrilling to say the least as Fabio Aru (Astana) went all in to win the Vuelta overall, attacking race leader Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin) on the penultimate climb. This put all the GC contenders on high alert as Dumoulin was put in real trouble for the first time. Louis only needed to be concerned with the riders nearest to him on GC and so he followed the wheel of the 11th placed Domenico Pozzovivo (AG2R La Mondiale).
Aru managed to open up a substantial gap on Dumoulin who indecently was in Louis group. There was nothing Dumoulin could do as Aru had teammates drop back from the big early break to help the Italian ride into the leaders jersey. 13 of the original breakaway riders managed to stay clear of the GC contenders but Louis 36th place on the stage means he is poised to finish 10th overall in Madrid tomorrow.
Jens Zemke – Head of Performance
