Cycling: The Australian Adam Hansen (Lotto Belisol) has won the 19th stage of the Vuelta a Espana as a soloist. Five seconds later, John Degenkolb (Giant-Shimano) led the field across the finish line. There were no changes in the overall standings before the final mountain stage.
The final of the 180-kilometer stage from Salvaterra de Miño to Cangas de Morazzo was marked by a category 2 climb, on which Alexey Lutsenko (Astana) from Kazakhstan broke free. With a 15-second lead, he then went downhill. However, the way was too far for the Kazakhs. 6 kilometers from the finish he was caught on the last wave of the day.
Hansen used this moment to pull away decisively from the field. Although another rider, Daniel Navarro (Cofidis), tried to get the rear wheel of the 33-year-old Australian, he left no doubt that he wanted to reach the finish line as a soloist.
Due to the difficult final none of the sprinters remaining in the peloton could fall back on a full team of helpers. For this reason, there were repeated attacks, but they were all pulverized. Degenkolb finally prevailed in the sprint for second place against Italian Filippo Pozzato (Lampre-Merida). As a result, he was able to increase his lead over second-placed Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) in the points classification.
Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) continues to lead the overall standings, going into the final two stages of the Tour with a lead of 1:19 over Chris Froome (Sky) and 1:32 over Valverde.
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