Toro
Takes
Mont Royal
Two weeks before the World Championships race the very same roads, the GP de Montréal told everyone what to fear. Sixteen laps of the new 13.4 km Mont Royal circuit — 4,300 metres of Camillien-Houde, Polytechnique and Pagnuelo — came down to a final-lap duel between two of cycling's youngest heavyweights: Paul Seixas attacked, Isaac del Toro bridged, and the pair put thirty seconds into everyone with a Worlds jersey on their minds. Seixas dug again at four to go; Del Toro sat, waited, and won the 800-metre uphill sprint with something close to ease. McNulty was third at half a minute, and Evenepoel — dropped, then heroic in the chase — fifth. See you back here on the 27th.
La Vuelta
- 01Monaco → Monaco
- 02Monaco → Manosque
- 03Gruissan → Font-Romeu
- 04Andorra la Vella → Andorra la Vella
- 05Falset → Roquetes
- 06Alcossebre → Castellón
- 07Vall d'Alba → Valdelinares
- 08Puçol → Xeraco
- 09La Vila Joiosa → Alto de Aitana
- 10Alcaraz → Elche de la Sierra
- 11Cartagena → Lorca
- 12Vera → Calar Alto
- 13Almuñécar → Loja
- 14Jaén → Sierra de la Pandera
- 15Palma del Río → Córdoba
- 16Cortegana → La Rábida
- 17Dos Hermanas → Sevilla
- 18El Puerto de Santa María → Jerez de la Frontera
- 19Vélez-Málaga → Peñas Blancas
- 20La Calahorra → Collado del Alguacil
- 21Granada → Granada
From the peloton,
this week
Étape 04Landismo, One Last Time: Landa Takes the Queen Stage as Mas Seals the Vuelta
The Sierra Nevada queen stage — 5,000 metres of climbing, Hazallanas twice, and the 22% ramps of the Collado del Alguacil — gave this Vuelta the finale its script demanded and one it never saw coming. Mikel Landa, 36 years old, winless all season and bound for Euskaltel next year, dropped his last breakaway companions 7 km from the summit and soloed to the queen stage by 47 seconds. Sepp Kuss raided from long range to vault six places into the top five. And Enric Mas answered every question Roglič and Gall could ask: barring disaster in Granada, Spain has its first Vuelta champion since Contador in 2014.
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Étape 05Seventy-Five Metres of Patience: Evenepoel Outlasts Ciccone in Québec
After 41 days without racing, Remco Evenepoel returned at the Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec and rode the finale like a man who had spent the layoff studying everyone else's tells. Twenty laps of the redesigned Québec City circuit whittled the field to half; Evenepoel bridged to the decisive group with 40 km to go, countered Alberto Bettiol at 28, dropped Anthon Charmig on the last Côte de la Montagne — and then, with Giulio Ciccone glued to his wheel and refusing a single turn, led out the sprint himself and won it anyway. A masterclass in doing all the work and keeping the win.
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Étape 06Caught at the Last: Dunbar Runs Down Buitrago on Peñas Blancas
The first half of the Vuelta's climactic mountain double-header went to the breakaway, and to the most patient man in it. Santiago Buitrago attacked with two kilometres of Peñas Blancas left and looked gone; Eddie Dunbar, who had animated the escape all day, paced the 19 km climb like a time trial and swept past inside the final kilometre to win by 14 seconds, with his 24-year-old team-mate Thomas Gloag third. Behind, the GC held its breath: Enric Mas covered everything, Roglič sits at 1:37, and the red jersey that fell to Mas the day Pogačar crashed out is one summit from Granada.
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Étape 07The Race of Truth Tells the Truth: Küng Wins in Jerez, Mas Bends but Holds
The Vuelta's second race of truth ran 32 flat kilometres through sherry country from El Puerto de Santa María to Jerez, and it told everyone exactly what they suspected. Stefan Küng, beaten to the hot seat all season, took it back at 54.4 km/h — three seconds ahead of 21-year-old Callum Thornley, denied by a whisker in a Grand Tour time trial for the second time this race. Primož Roglič rode an inspired fourth and took 33 seconds out of Enric Mas; Mas rode a limiter's time trial and kept 1:37 of red jersey. Two mountains left. The Vuelta knows its question now — it just doesn't know the answer.
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Étape 08Five, Like Cavendish: Brennan Completes the Set in Sevilla
The Vuelta's last pure sprint went the way every sprint of this race has gone when Matthew Brennan wanted it. Enzo Paleni made the day honest with a lone raid that ended 4 km from the line; Wout van Aert made the finale simple; and Brennan finished it past Jordi Meeus and Magnus Cort on the run between María Luisa Park and the Guadalquivir. Five stage wins in a single Vuelta — the youngest rider ever to do it, and the first Briton to take five in a Grand Tour since Mark Cavendish in 2013. Visma's seventh. The sprinting part of this race is finished, and it had one author.
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Étape 09Four From a First Grand Tour: Brennan Joins Gaviria in La Rábida
Off the rest day and down to the Atlantic, the Vuelta gave the sprinters the long flat run to the Columbus monastery at La Rábida — and Visma gave everyone else no chance. A five-man break was managed to extinction, Red Bull's crosswind ambush near the Río Tinto estuary fizzled, and Wout van Aert delivered Matthew Brennan through the last corner and released him at 125 metres. Daylight. Coquard second, Braet third. Four stage wins in his first Grand Tour — a thing nobody had done since Fernando Gaviria at the 2017 Giro — and Visma's sixth of the race, with the kid two days from more history.
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