La Vuelta 2021 cycling - Soporific stage sizzles into life as Fabio Jakobsen seizes second victory at seaside

ByTom Owen

Updated 21/08/2021 at 17:25 GMT

Jakobsen, who also triumphed on Stage 4 in Molina de Aragón, delivered when it really mattered after what was a flat 173.7km route from Santa Pola, while Primoz Roglic retained his eight-second lead in the general classification before another mountainous stage. You can watch La Vuelta live and ad-free on the Eurosport app and Eurosport.co.uk. Download the Eurosport app for iOS and Android now.

Fabio Jakobsen seized a second stage victory at the 2021 Vuelta in what ended up being a very fast finish into La Manga.

The 24-year-old Dutchman opened his sprint at the perfect time after being guided masterfully through the maelstrom by his Deceuninck-QuickStep teammates.

Jakobsen, who also triumphed on Stage 4 in Molina de Aragón, delivered when it really mattered after a flat 173.7km route from Santa Pola. It was far from a surprise victory for the Dutchman, with Eurosport's Sean Kelly among the pundits to tip him at the start of the day.

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Alberto Dainese of Team DSM came in second place with Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin Fenix) in third, while Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) retained his eight-second lead in the general classification before another mountainous stage on Sunday. Dainese's teammate Michael Storer won yesterday's stage, and the squad as a whole is no-doubt riding high after this repeated success.

Today's stage was the closest we have yet come to the promised crosswinds and echelons that we have been hoping for throughout this first week. With around 35km remaining, Astana instigated an attack through Omar Fraile and Ion Izagirre that did do some damage to the peloton, but failed to catch out any of the key protagonists for either the stage or the GC. A group of 30 riders was tailed off, before eventually fighting back into contact some 15km later.

This injection of pace effectively spelled the end of the breakaway's time in the lead of the break, with Ander Okamika (Burgos-BH), Aritz Bagues (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA) and Mikel Iturria (Euskaltel-Euskadi) being brought back into the peloton soon after the excoriating attack from Astana.

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The points garnered from his win today were enough for Jakobsen to unseat Philipsen from his position as leader of the green jersey competition. Jakobsen will now get the honour of pulling on the maillot verde as the race returns once again to the mountains.

Arnaud Demare's disappointing Vuelta continued with a seventh place in the sprint today. The Groupama leader, who just needs a win at La Vuelta to complete his set of stage wins in all three Grand Tours, seemed to fade away in the final part of the stage, despite he and his team being prominently placed in the build-up.

Davide Cimolai (Israel StartUp Nation) abandoned the race today, the third member of that squad to leave La Vuelta early.

Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) still leads the young riders classification, 25 seconds ahead of Aleksandr Vlasov (Astana PremierTech). His teammate Pavel Sivakov holds the polka dot jersey.

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