PICO VILLUERCAS, Spain — Romain Bardet won the mountainous 14th stage of the Spanish Vuelta on Saturday, while Odd Christian Eiking did well to limit the damage to his overall lead.
Bardet, a three-time stage winner at the Tour de France, claimed his first win at the Spanish race after dropping the last of his companions in a breakaway on the day’s third and final climb.
The French rider for DSM won the 165.7-kilometer (103-mile) route in western Spain in 4 hours, 20 minutes, 36 seconds. It was the 30-year-old Bardet’s first win at a Grand Tour since the 2017 Tour de France.
“No one wanted to commit in the breakaway, so I had a really hard time to catch the riders at the front,” Bardet said. “But at the end I think we played it smartly with my sports director, who told me exactly when to attack.”
Two-time defending Vuelta champion Primoz Roglic was able to reduce the advantage of surprise leader Eiking by a few seconds. Eiking, a Norwegian rider for Intermarche-Wanty, ensured that he will wear the red jersey for a fifth consecutive day after clinging to the tail end of the group of the hardiest general classification riders as the pace picked up on the final ascent.
Eiking leads Guillaume Martin by 54 seconds, Roglic by 1:36, and Enric Mas by 2:11.
The breakaway group of 18 riders, none in contention for the overall lead, opened up a large gap over the peloton early on. The stage went over two mountain passes before it finished atop the category-one Pico Villuercas.
Nicolas Prodhomme led the race by a minute as he started the final 14-kilometer (8.6-mile) climb. But he quickly lost the advantage. Bardet powered past him and fellow pursuer Andrey Zeits with 6 kilometers (3.7 miles) left.
The race stays in the western mountains on Sunday when riders face 197.5 kilometers (122.7 miles) and four climbs between Navalmoral de la Mata and El Barraco.
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