Mads Pedersen wins Vuelta stage 16 after drama for Roglic and Evenepoel

Mads Pedersen won a thrilling sprint at the end of stage 16 at the Vuelta a España as overall contender Primoz Roglic’s hopes of taking back time on Remco Evenepoel were hit by a crash metres from the line on Tuesday.

Roglic, bidding for a fourth successive overall victory, began the day 1min 34sec behind Evenepoel in second place and launched a stunning attack near the end of the 189km ride. The Slovenian poured on the power on the uphill finish in Tomares to split the race with only four other riders managing to stay with him. But as the finish line loomed, Roglic was overtaken and seconds later went down heavily after seemingly touching handlebars with those of Fred Wright 100m from the line.

Denmark’s Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo) took the win – his second of this year’s race –from Pascal Ackermann (UAE Team Emirates) and Danny van Poppel (Bora-Hansgrohe), with a bloodied Roglic getting gingerly back to his bike and rolling slowly over the line in the pursuing bunch.

As Roglic attacked Evenepoel appeared to have suffered a puncture inside the final 3km and required a bike change. Initial timings suggested Roglic, despite his misfortune, had taken the red jersey with Evenepoel slipping down to third, but that was soon revised with Evenepoel given the same time as the main peloton thanks to the “3km rule”, which mitigates against crashes or mechanicals at the end of stages.

When the dust settled Roglic, who was given the same time as Pedersen, had taken back a mere eight seconds on Evenepoel, who now leads by 1min 26 sec from Roglic. Spain’s Enric Mas is 2min 1sec down in third place, with some mountainous terrain on the horizon later this week. It was tough on Roglic who looked in real discomfort as he reached the finish.