Urko Berrade wins in a dream Vuelta a España 2024 for Kern Pharma

They have done it again. Incredible 2024 edition of La Vuelta for Kern Pharma that adds, no less, than its third partial victory, this time by Urko Berrade who, in addition, achieves his first victory as a professional cyclist. A climax to stage 18 that was disputed in the lands of Álava and in which, against all odds, there were also movements among the men in the general classification that left Mike Landa as the big loser.

Kern Pharma's dream continues with Urko Berrade's victory

How beautiful cycling is when the script is broken. Precisely that happened in stage 18, a medium mountain stage that connected Vitoria with Maestu, in the heart of the Izki natural park. A typical route with Rioja Alavesa as the protagonist and that included, in addition to the ascents to Rivas de Tereso and the tough Herrera mountain pass, a multitude of short climbs that provided a suitable terrain for a high-level breakaway.

At first, without a fight among the favorites who, presumably, would save themselves for the two uphill finishes in the next stages, especially the wild stage next Saturday through Cantabrian lands.

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In fact, the planned script was being fulfilled at the beginning, forming a huge breakaway of 38 cyclists where, once again, names that have been common in recent days were repeated: Soler, Vlasov, Lazkano, Poole... and, among so many top-level cyclists, a remarkable presence of Kern Pharma that managed to place half a team, four cyclists, in the leading group. Among them, their top riders Pablo Castrillo, Urko Berrade, and Pau Miquel.

They thus surpassed the first of the mountain difficulties, Rivas de Tereso, while the peloton led by Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale let them go. However, in the descent of the pass, Mathias Vace, Mauro Schmid, and Stefan Küng stood out, gaining a 1-minute advantage until the 3 TRex-QuickStep men present in the breakaway, Casper Pedersen, Mauri Vansevenant, and Mattia Cattaneo, started working, especially betting on the latter who has also shown good form in recent stages.

They arrived at the beginning of Herrera where Kruijswijk, Vlasov, and Cattaneo attacked, making an initial selection in the group and catching up with the leading trio. Behind them, a few more riders arrived in what would be the first selection, including Castrillo, Lazkano, or Soler. We would still see a final attack among the escapees, led by Marc Soler who was looking for mountain points. And after the descent, Kern Pharma's perfect control of the situation, with Castrillo and Berrade at the front, allowed them to pace the group to allow the entry of Pau Miquel, a top-level sprinter, for the finale.

Meanwhile, in the peloton, which had let the gap increase to over 10 minutes, a paradigm shift occurred at the beginning of Herrera, where EF Education-EasyPost took the lead in a perfectly premeditated move. The intense pace completely decimated the main group, leaving only about 12 cyclists, among whom, surprisingly, Mikel Landa was not found.

Richard Carapaz saw it and continued the work of his teammates, changing the pace. Not a sudden attack to break away, but a constant and sustained acceleration that eventually sealed Landa's fate and, at times, left the group with just four units: him, Roglic, Mas, and a struggling Ben O'Connor who managed to hold on with all his might until, reaching the summit, Carapaz made another move that dropped the leader.

A gap of about ten seconds opened up and EF Education-EasyPost showed the plan that they had surely meticulously prepared on the bus, as Carapaz's teammates who were in the breakaway waited for him at the top to start working hard.

Ben O'Connor was lucky enough to apply the same tactic with two other teammates, and the tension of the chase did not go beyond the descent, as in a tremendous team effort, they managed to rejoin, saving the first match ball. The situation looked worse for Mikel Landa, whose time hemorrhage was increasing, and the team did not decide to stop any of their three cyclists, especially when Vansevenant and Pedersen had already been dropped on the climb to the pass. When they finally decided to go to the aid of the Basque rider, inexplicably they also stopped Mattia Cattaneo, just 13 kilometers from the finish line, when he was in a position to fight for the stage, something that the Italian obeyed with visible anger.

Only the outcome of the stage remained to be determined in an area of one climb after another where any small split could move forward. We saw attempts from Vlasov, Küng, Lazkano... and Kern Pharma closing all the gaps, and in one of these attacks, a strong move by Kruijswijk, Urko Berrade followed him, taking advantage of playing at home on roads he knows perfectly, counterattacking when the Dutchman eased up a bit and managed to open a gap that would ultimately be decisive. Especially thanks to the excellent work behind by Pau Miquel and Pablo Castrillo, shutting down all attempts to neutralize him.

Not content with that, Pau Miquel had the luxury of sprinting and achieved third place in the stage, which could have been second if not for the excitement in celebrating his teammate's victory as if it were his own, showing the team spirit that has led Kern Pharma to make this 2024 Vuelta a truly dreamlike experience for a Pro Team.

Almost 7 minutes later, the greatly reduced peloton arrived, and it would take another 3 minutes and 20 seconds to see the group led by Mattia Cattaneo cross the finish line, with Mikel Landa practically giving up all his chances of achieving a top 5 position in the general classification and dropping to 10th place, 5 minutes 38 seconds behind Ben O'Connor.

Stage 18 Classification

1. Urko Berrade (Kern Pharma) 4h00'52''
2. Mauro Schmid (Jayco-AlUla) +04''
3. Pau Miquel (Kern Pharma) +04''
4. Max Poole (DSM-Firmenich-PostNL) +04''
5. Aleksandr Vlasov (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) +04''
6. Oier Lazkano (Movistar Team) +04''
7. Ion Izagirre (Cofidis) +04''
8. Mathias Vacek (Lidl-Trek) +04''
9. Pablo Castrillo (Kern Pharma) +07''
10. Steven Krujswijk (Visma-Lease a Bike) +11''

General Classification

1. Ben O'Connor (Decathlon-AG2R La Mondiale) 72h48'46''
2. Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) +05''
3. Enric Mas (Movistar Team) +1'25''
4. Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) +1'46''
5. David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) +3'48''
6. Carlos Rodríguez (INEOS Grenadiers) +3'53''
7. Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) +4'00''
8. Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) +4'27''
9. Pavel Sivakov (UAE Team Emirates) +5'19''
10. Mikel Landa (TRex-QuickStep) +5'38''