Jakob OMZEL. 10 with honors. If there's no Tadej, there's Giacomo, who does even better than number one of the number ones. He wins on Calar Alto with a move of great craftsmanship at the tender age of 20 years and 166 days. Better than Taddeo. He wins in the Bahrain jersey, which today has the satisfaction of placing two riders in the top three. Giacomo ahead of everyone and Santiago Buitrago in 3rd place. The kid makes a big leap, pedaling hard, pedaling well. He jumps four positions in the general classification and is now 6th at 4'59" from the red jersey. A great leap for a twenty-year-old who is ready to make waves on other occasions.

Santiago BUITRAGO. 9. He fights like a lion, even in the face of a tiger (Van Aert). He scores point after point with humble determination. Then he tries to stay up front and he does, strengthening his leadership in the "climbers" classification: now he leads with 52 points, at 30 there's the tiger.

Urko BERRADE. 9. A race at the front, a race in pursuit. Giacomo goes too fast, but Urko today doesn't go slow: wow!

Alexey LUTSENKO. 8. He's racing a Vuelta of great quality: today too he's there making his mark.

Enric MAS. 9. Today was a very important passage for him and he gets through it brilliantly. He doesn't win, but he convinces, especially himself: it can be done. He practically gains on everyone. Now he leads with 1'45" over Roglic: that's not nothing.

Felix GALL. 5. He declared that today would be a battle: he loses it.

Primoz ROGLIC. 6. At his age he's racing at an absolutely high level, even if at the moment his level is this.

Richard CARAPAZ. 5.5. This could be his stage, it could be.

Oscar ONLEY. 17. The white jersey of Netcompany INEOS ends up on the ground. Not exactly a great way to start such a hard stage, but in this case the asphalt was harder. A roundabout was the culprit: with him on the ground also end up Frederik Wandahl (Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe) and other athletes. Then when all is said and done, he pays the price. Omzel has gotten closer: he's 30" away from his white jersey.

Axel LAURANCE. 6.5. The Netcompany INEOS rider is the first to lead the day's breakaway. With him Ramses Debruyne (Alpecin - Premier Tech) and Alexey Lutsenko (NSN Cycling Team).

Wout VAN AERT. 10. He races with the wind in his face, but especially at his back. On the attack as if there's no tomorrow, with the intent to collect points for the polka dot jersey of the mountain passes and those of the green jersey. The Belgian wins in sequence the mountain passes of Alto del Cabecico, Alto de Cóbdar and Collado García. On all three mountain passes behind him is Buitrago, who tries in some way to stem the exuberance of Wout who thinks of the jerseys: especially the rainbow one.