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2016 Vuelta a España Stage 6: Yates pounces to win in Luintra

Atapuma still in the red jersey

August 25, 2016
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Orica-BikeExchange’s Simon Yates (Great Britain) launched a late attack on an uphill section to take the spoils on Stage 6 on Thursday. BMC’s Darwin Atapuma (Colombia) keeps the leader’s red jersey.


The parcours was a little too rolling for the sprinters Thursday, the final 60-km featuring a Cat. 2 climb, a long uncategorized climb and then a little rise in the last 5-km before a downhill and flat run in to the line.


A plethora of escapes didn’t stick in the first 30-km, with Cannondale-Drapac, Orica-BikeExchange, Movistar and Etixx-QuickStep active in shutting them down. After Wednesday’s rain, it was back to the soaring heat on Thursday. The pace was very high: 48-km in the first hour.

Angel Lopez (Colombia/Astana), a pre-race contender who crashed on Stage 3 and broke several teeth, abandoned.

After an hour, 11-riders finally snapped the elastic. Among them were 2015 Vuelta King of the Mountains Oscar Fraile (Spain/Dimension Data) and Mathias Frank (Switzerland/IAM Cycling). BMC took on the traditional role of leading the peloton, keeping the fugitives within 2:30.

Once the break hit the Cat. 2 Alto Alenza (10.9-km at 5.1%), Fraile attacked. By that time, Orica-BikeExchange had been whipping along the bunch for a quarter of an hour. Fraile summited alone, putting himself into third place in the KOM race.

Fraile hit the foot of a long, mysteriously unclassified climb–15-km of 4%–with 2:10 over the peloton, now under pressure from Movistar. Thirty-kilometres remained. Fraile’s main worry came from three former breakmates in a chase. Frank and two others closed the gap and snagged the Spaniard with 19-km to go. Frank then attacked.

But the Swiss rider only had 50-seconds on the field with 15-km to go. With 5-km remaining, Frank, off to AG2R in 2017, held a 25-second gap. Movistar’s Dani Moreno lit out after him on the rise close to the finish in Luintra, drawing Yates. Yates shed Moreno and collared Frank.


Yates, 15th place overnight, went solo, with Moreno, Frank and Ben Hermans (Belgium/BMC) his main chasers. But the Brit would hold on and take his first Grand Tour victory. He also jumps up to 10th in GC.

Friday’s stage is another lumpy, intermediate day.

2016 Vuelta a España Stage 6
1) Simon Yates (Great Britain/Orica-BikeExchange) 4:05:00
2) LL Sanchez (Spain/Astana) +0:20
3) Fabio Felline (Italy/Trek-Segafredo) +0:22
130) Ryan Anderson (Canada/Trek-Segafredo) +23:01
184) Svein Tuft (Canada/Orica-BikeExchange) s.t.

2016 Vuelta a España GC
1) Darwin Atapuma (Colombia/BMC) 21:45:21
2) Alejandro Valverde (Spain/Movistar) +0:28
3) Chris Froome (Great Britain/Sky) +0:32
156) Ryan Anderson (Canada/Trek-Segafredo) +55:58
183) Svein Tuft (Canada/Orica-BikeExchange) +1:03:22

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