Evenepoel cracks on La Pandera as Carapaz wins a second stage

Recmo Evenepoel lost time on the steep 15% slopes of La Pandera, Roglic took back time ahead of tomorrow's Queen Stage

Drama on Stage 14 of the Vuelta a Espana as Remco Evenepoel showed signs of weakness on the final climb and lost a lot of time on his rivals, whilst INEOS Grenadiers' Richard Carapaz took his second consecutive summit finish victory.

The first half of the stage was mostly flat, after a long battle for a breakaway ten riders went up the road after 70km including; Richard Carapaz, Alexey Lutsenko, Filippo Conca, Marco Brenner, Luis Leõn Sánchez, Mads Pedersen, Raúl García Pierna, Bruno Armirail, Kenny Elissonde and Clément Champoussin.

The gap went up a maximum of ten minutes with Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl Team controlling the pace.

The climb to Los Villares tis were the action began, with the breakaway losing some riders, Alexey Lutsenko launched an attack. Sánchez attacked towards the summit, with Richard Carapaz bridging across at the bottom of the ascent to Sierra de la Pandera. Behind Jumbo-Visma and INEOS Grenadiers set the pace for the GC riders.

Champoussin and Conca bridged across to Sánchez and Lutsenko, behind Chris Hasper set a legbreaking pace in the GC group which thinned it out. The pace behind reduced the breakaway's lead to a minute and a half with five kilometers to go.

With 4km to on the 15% slopes of La Pandera, Primoz Roglic attacked and Evenepoel cracked. Miguel Ángel López and Enric Mas attacked Evenepoel, as Carapaz went solo at the front to take his second uphill mountain stage win.

Evenepoel's lead was reduced to 1m 39s to Roglic after losing over 50s.

Tomorrow's Queen Stage features over 4000 metres of climbing up the brutal climb of Sierra Nevada at over 2,500m above sea level.

VIDEO: Stage 14 Highlights

Stage 14 Top 10

1 ECU Richard Carapaz INEOS Grenadiers 04:09:27
2 COL Miguel Ángel López Astana Qazaqstan Team + 08
3 SLO Primoz Roglic Jumbo-Visma + 08
4 POR Joao Almeida UAE Team Emirates + 27
5 ESP Carlos Rodriguez INEOS Grenadiers + 36
6 ESP Enric Mas Movistar Team + 36
7 NED Thymen Arensman Team DSM + 51
8 BEL Remco Evenepoel Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl Team + 56
9 ESP Juan Ayuso UAE Team Emirates + 56
10 NED Wilco Kelderman BORA-hansgrohe + 01:24

GC after Stage 14

01 BEL Remco Evenepoel Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl Team 52:21:33
02 SLO Primoz Roglic Jumbo-Visma + 01:49
03 ESP Enric Mas Movistar Team + 02:43
04 ESP Carlos Rodriguez INEOS Grenadiers + 03:46
05 ESP Juan Ayuso UAE Team Emirates + 04:53
06 COL Miguel Ángel López Astana Qazaqstan Team + 06:02
07 POR Joao Almeida UAE Team Emirates + 06:49
08 NED Wilco Kelderman BORA-hansgrohe + 06:56
09 GBR Tao Geoghegan Hart INEOS Grenadiers + 08:49
10 AUS Ben O'Connor AG2R Citroën Team + 09:12