From Dutch to Dutch. The Vuelta is in the Netherlands and the leader's red jersey is passed from hand to hand among the locals. It was donned by Robert Gesink in the first stage and this Sunday, on the last day in the country before traveling to the Basque Country, it will be worn by Mike Teunissen, who was fourth in the sprint of the second stage, both on the Jumbo. Everything stays at home. Even the mountain jersey was caught by another compatriot. It was taken by Van der Berg (EF), who was the fastest in the only port, in fourth.
Only the stage victory escaped the tulips. Sam Bennett sneaked into the party, the Irishman who last year did not run any big with Quick Step and for that reason decided to sign for Bora. The 31-year-old sprinter showed that he still has a lot of spark in the first massive finish of the Vuelta. Of course, his pitcher, Danny van Poppel, is Dutch. And more specifically from Utrecht.
"I'm happy to continue the streak I have in the grand tours." Since 2018 whenever she has run one she has raised her arms. She has done it in all three. In the Vuelta there are three participations and four victories: two in 2019, one in 2020 and one in 2022.
Bennett didn't want to wear himself out in the bonus sprint on the runway at Soesterberg Air Base. There Pedersen beat Mullen, Bennett's friend and partner, who saved his strength. At the finish line, the former world champion saw how the Bora sprinter was fresh and intractable.
“The boys have surprised me this morning”, explained Teunissen, new leader. “They told me that the mission was to place Roglic within the safety distance and that afterwards I could sprint calmly”. Obviously, that meant that by positions, they gave him the red jersey.
Little did Pau Miquel imagine a year ago that on August 20, 2022 he would blow out the candles of his twenty-second anniversary in Utrecht, contesting his first Vuelta a España. Kern Pharma, the team he had signed for, was not even invited to the 2021 edition.
Life takes so many laps that the cyclist from Sant Quirze del Vallès celebrated it on Dutch roads with a breakaway. “I will not forget this birthday. The director was clear that I was the one in charge of getting into the escape, ”he discovered. "I'm stuck with the thorn because I came with good legs but I couldn't win the mountain sprint." He was third, after Van der Berg and Guernalec.
Twenty years older, Alejandro Valverde only asked one thing of his last Vuelta. Health and no fall. At first, on the forehead. 500 meters from the finish line, several fell and he, although he braked, fell to the ground. a scare
