Après Kaden Groves (Alpecin-Deceuninck) et Geoffrey Soupe (TotalEnergies), c'est au tour de Juan Sebastian Molano de remporter un sprint massif sur ce Tour d'Espagne ! Déjà vainqueur de la dernière étape à Madrid l'an passé, le sprinteur colombien s'est cette fois-ci imposé à Saragosse à l'occasion d'une 12e étape très calme ce jeudi sur La Vuelta. Âgé de 28 ans, le coureur d'UAE Team Emirates pourra grandement remercier son coéquipier Rui Oliveira, le Portugais terminant même 4e après avoir réalisé un lancement parfait pour propulser son leader au bon moment. Ce dernier devance un Kaden Groves très fort - mais gêné par un saut de chaîne au moment d'enclencher - et Boy van Poppel (Intermarché-Circus-Wanty). Seul changement majeur au classement général : Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) est venu grappiller 4 secondes de bonifs au sprint intermédiaire et revient donc à 1'32" de son coéquipier et maillot rouge Sepp Kuss.
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00:00 Sometimes, there would be Grand Tours that would run so many seconds and thirds with
00:07 really good lead outs, so the work really doesn't show when you don't win.
00:13 So to be able to pull a really good lead out and our sprinter delivers is something pretty
00:21 special.
00:22 What was going on with the intermediate sprint?
00:24 Did Primoz Rolic catch you guys off guard there at 19 kilometers to go?
00:28 Actually, I have no idea what was going on in the intermediate sprint.
00:32 I was just focusing to save my legs with Milan beating the bunch.
00:36 Yeah, for today we couldn't take care much of our leaders, but they understand we also
00:45 had this job to do.
00:46 And I think it's a big relief for all the team that we go into the next stages knowing
00:50 we already won.
00:51 So few sprints available and the team's also here with Almeida, you, so to get this win
00:58 is important.
00:59 Yeah, definitely.
01:00 I mean, we come with the GC team mainly and it's just me and Milano, you know.
01:06 We had pretty hard stages the first week.
01:10 Also, had a few crashes.
01:13 The first stages actually, I didn't know I was going to survive the following days.
01:17 But yeah, I mean, it's just to make a friend win, make a teammate win, for me it's always
01:26 so special and to make it in a Grand Tour, well, I'm speechless.
01:32 Sorry to come a bit late.
01:34 Can you just describe a bit the sprint how you managed it and how you managed to finish
01:37 fourth yourself even?
01:39 I didn't even know I finished fourth.
01:41 That's pretty good actually.
01:43 But yeah, that doesn't matter much.
01:47 We knew at the time this lead out, like with patience, everyone would want the inside because
01:54 it was slightly head cross and always bending to the left.
01:58 So yeah, the strategy was to time well and wait a little bit longer this time.
02:04 My team told me to really don't go before 400.
02:08 So I had that in my mind.
02:09 I think I went a bit before 400, but I came from the outside that no one, like there was
02:17 pretty much a good gap.
02:19 I could have sprint straight.
02:22 And yeah, I just went full gas without thinking.
02:24 I knew Molanu would be in my wheel and I could time, I could hold pretty much until almost
02:30 the finish line.
02:31 So yeah, I'm so happy because Molanu is a really good friend of mine for a long time.
02:35 And yeah, to win already in a Grand Tour, it gives a big relief for the next weeks.