Richard Carapaz wins stage 14 while Roglic cuts Evenepoel’s Vuelta lead

Richard Carapaz hung on to win the mountainous 14th stage of the Vuelta a España, while Primoz Roglic reduced the gap to Remco Evenepoel after the race leader wilted on the final ascent.

Carapaz, of Ineos Grenadiers, won his second stage in three days after forming part of an early breakaway and clinging to his slim lead over the final metres as Roglic and another chaser came on strong. The Ecuadorian completed the gruelling ride in southern Spain from Montoro to the category-one Sierra de la Pandera summit in just over four hours.

Miguel López Ángel of Astana Qazaqstan and Roglic were a few seconds behind. They chewed up what had been a four-minute gap but Carapaz just had enough. Roglic, the three-time defending champion, accomplished his main goal, however, when the Jumbo Visma leader attacked on the final climb and watched as Evenepoel failed to keep pace.

Roglic slashed the gap to Evenepoel from 2min 41sec at the day’s start to 1:49 with seven stages remaining. Enric Mas was third overall at 2:43 behind.

Evenepoel will wear the red leader’s jersey for an eighth consecutive day, but Roglic was finally able to do some damage to the Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl rider’s advantage and could try to press his momentum on back-to-back mountain stages.

“It wasn’t my best day for sure, I didn’t have the best legs, I couldn’t accelerate when Roglic went,” the leader of Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl said. “I’m still 1:50 ahead in the (general classification), so nothing to really panic about. I’ll try to recover as much as possible and survive tomorrow.”

Sunday’s 15th stage takes riders over 153km to a summit finish at the special-category Alto Hoya de la Mora. The three-week race finishes in Madrid next weekend.