Australian rider Kaden Groves beat green jersey holder Wout van Aert in an uphill finish to win stage 14 of the Vuelta a Espana, while overall leader Ben O’Connor maintained his advantage over Primoz Roglic.
Belgian Van Aert, who heads the Vuelta points classification from Groves, lost out in the final sprint in the longest stage of the race, a 200.5km mountainous route between Villafranca del Bierzo and Villablino.
Roglic withstood late drama as he suffered a puncture which could have undone much of the work he did in Friday’s stage 13 to reduce O’Connor’s lead.
But team-mate Dani Martinez came to the rescue, swapping bikes with the Slovenian and allowing Roglic to make up time to ensure he stayed one minute 21 seconds behind O’Connor in the general classification.
All the riders in overall contention finished in the peloton, leading to the standings seeing little change.
Sunday’s action involves another mountainous route, with stage 15 being a 143km race from Infiesto to Cuitu Negru.
Stage 14 results
1. Kaden Groves (Aus/Alpecin-Deceuninck) 4hrs 21mins 34secs
2. Wout van Aert (Bel/Visma – Lease a Bike) Same time
3. Corbin Strong (NZ/Israel-Premier Tech)
4. Mathias Vacek (Cze/Lidl-Trek)
5. Pau Miquel Delgado (Spa/Equipo Kern Pharma)
6. Filippo Baroncini (Ita/UAE Team Emirates)
7. Simon Guglielmi (Fra/Arkea – B&B Hotels)
8. Arjen Livyns (Bel/Lotto Dstny)
9. Xabier Berasategi Garmendia (Spa/Euskaltel-Euskadi)
10. Carlos Canal (Spa/Movistar)
General classification after stage 14
1. Ben O’Connor (Aus/Decathlon-AG2R-La Mondiale) 56hrs 31mins 49secs
2. Primoz Roglic (Slo/Red Bull – BORA-hansgrohe) +1min 21secs
3. Enric Mas (Spa/Movistar) +3mins 01secs
4. Richard Carapaz (Ecu/EF Education-EasyPost) +3mins 13secs
5. Mikel Landa (Spa/Soudal – Quick-Step) +3mins 20secs
6. Carlos Rodríguez (Spa/Ineos Grenadiers) +4mins 12secs
7. Florian Lipowitz (Ger/Red Bull – Bora-hansgrohe) +4mins 29secs
8. Felix Gall (Aut/Decathlon – AG2R – La Mondiale) +4mins 42 secs
9. David Gaudu (Fra/Groupama – FDJ) +4mins 44secs
10. Adam Yates (GB/UAE Team Emirates) +5mins 17secs