(Reuters) – Mads Pedersen won a thrilling sprint at the end of stage 16 at the Vuelta a Espana 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 1:34 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.
As the finish line loomed, Roglic was overtaken and seconds later went down heavily after clipping wheels with 100m to go.
Denmark’s Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo) took the win from Pascal Ackermann (UAE Team Emirates) and Danny van Poppel (Bora-Hansgrohe) with a bloodied Roglic getting gingerly back to his bike and limping over the line in the pursuing bunch.
Evenepoel himself appeared to have suffered a late 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 still on top.
He now leads by 1:26 from Roglic with Enric Mas 2:01 down in third place.
(Reporting by Martyn Herman; Editing by Toby Davis)
