Primoz Roglic takes his second stage win in this year's Vuelta and makes up some ground on overall leader Ben O'Connor. Mauro Schmid goes unrewarded after a spirited performance.
Schmid made a big contribution to the history of the eighth stage, which began in Andalusia in Ubeda and ended after 159 kilometers with the mountain arrival in Cazorla. The 24-year-old from Zurich was part of a lead group of three that had formed after around a third of the distance, which had grown to eight riders in the meantime and lasted as a sextet until twelve kilometers before the finish.
After that, however, Schmid's strength waned and the last breakaway riders were caught by the chasers with Roglic on the final climb of just under five kilometers. Schmid, who became Swiss road champion for the first time within a few days at the end of June and won the five-stage Tour of Slovakia, finished the stage in 47th place, a good three minutes behind Roglic. Stefan Küng, the second Swiss rider, finished in 58th place, almost five minutes down on Roglic.
The battle for victory ultimately turned into a duel in which Roglic prevailed against the Spaniard Enric Mas. O'Connor crossed the finish line 46 seconds after the duo. The lead of the overall leader, the Australian, who had taken the red leader's jersey on Thursday thanks to a solo victory, over second-placed Roglic dwindled to three minutes and 49 seconds.
Roglic had already won the fourth stage of this year's tour on Tuesday. The three-time winner of the Vuelta now has a total of 14 stage wins to his name.
Joao Almeida had a weak day. The Portuguese rider, who had previously been in 3rd place in the overall classification, reached the finish line at the same time as Küng and probably dropped out of the race with a view to winning the Tour.
Videos from the department
SDA
