OFFICIAL Stage 16 Results: Victor Campenaerts, Javier Romo ABANDON

[Laurens De Jong]

Hello, Vuelta a España Gamers!

 

STAGE Grade: B+

 

Without the summit finish, the route was a lot less interesting. Bonus points for being surprising, although in a negative way. Egan Bernal and Mikel Landa sprinting was fun to watch. Overall we deserved much better from this stage.

 

Route: 2/5         GC: 0/5             Tactics: 3/5       Sprint: 3/5         Surprises: 4/5

 

 

Jay Vine, or Juan Ayuso, I said. To my surprise, it was Marc Soler who jumped to the breakaway. Matxin, UAE Team Emirates – XRG’s sports director, had made it clear: in week three, no more freelancers. Everyone works for João Almeida.

 

If that’s true, then Soler was in the breakaway as a satellite rider. I don’t believe that. But the idea is intriguing.

 

Let’s assume he was there to win the stage. Then when Mikel Landa attacked — sixty kilometers from the finish! — it was time for Soler to follow. Egan Bernal, Brieuc Rolland, Clément Braz Afonso and later Nico Denz did. But Soler sat in the back of the rest of the breakaway. Gurning like crazy. Appearing to be out of gas, but we have seen him act like that before.

 

I was thinking he wanted to win the stage. Make everyone believe he couldn’t chase Landa and Bernal, so someone else would. Then he would eat their lunch first, attack as late as possible but before the others, and win the stage.

 

He must have been there to win the stage. He finally went into the counter attack by himself. Shadowed by Finlay Pickering, he slowly reeled in Nico Denz, who had been dropped by then. The emphasis on slowly. He was barely gaining on Denz, gaining nothing on the group Bernal/Landa.

 

If he wanted to win the stage, it was a painful mistake. If he was in the breakaway to help Almeida on the final climb, it all went terribly wrong. Shortly after the announcement was made to cancel the summit finish, but on a descent, Soler had pulled the plug. Freewheeled until the peloton caught up with him. Freewheeled some more after that.

 

So I don’t know. I want to think he was racing to win the stage. If so, then the way he lost the stage is objectively amusing.

 

Meanwhile, both Bernal and Landa had their best race in years and this year, respectively. For Landa, it was the third time in the 2025 Vuelta a España that he tried to win a stage. The first two times, he had to give up. His back injury, from the Giro d’Italia, was too much. This time, I think he could have gone up that final climb. Maybe beat Bernal.

 

But there was no final climb. Bernal clearly understood the final corners and timed his attack well. His first international win since his gruesome training crash in 2019. That’s a feel-good story, Bernal deserved that.

 

In the final descent, Jonas Vingegaard punctured. Ben Tulett quickly handed over his bike and Vingegaard was on his way again. For a moment that brought is back to the 2022 Tour de France. Vingegaard, punctured, hopped on Nathan van Hooydonck’s bike. Vingegaard is seven inches shorter than van Hooydonck, that bike did not fit. Vingegaard stopped again to take Steven Kruijswijk’s bike. They’re the same height, that would have worked. At that exact time, the team car showed up with a third bike for Vingegaard — his own spare bike.

 

Team Jumbo-Visma looked like idiots that year. But they did it right today: Tulett is slightly shorter than Vingegaard but it was good enough. Vingegaard finished the race on Tulett’s bike, Tulett had to wait for his spare bike and finished sixteen minutes down. Cycling is a team sport.

 

We are scraping the bottom of the barrel of available only-one-team-picked-him riders. Brieuc Rolland was in the breakaway, but we have already had him as our focus rider. Incredibly, Team John had him, Mikel Landa, and Egan Bernal. Today’s top three, represented by Team John. Bravo.

 

Andrea Bagioli was in the breakaway, same story, though. Jake Stewart, ditto.

 

Some candidates have already abandoned. Simon Carr, for example. Can’t write about him.

 

Joan Bou, then. Picked by Team Sylvia. Joan Bou Company — Bou is his paternal family name, Company is his maternal family name. That’s how it works in Spain. His name sounds slightly Basque, but he’s from Valencia.

 

In 2022, he was riding for Euskaltel-Euskadi. In those days, that was our focus team. I wrote about him in the stage 4 report: his name “sounds vaguely Basque but Bou is from Andalusia.” At least I’m consistent. I wrote about him because he captured the KOM jersey. Five points on the only categorized climb that day. He would end the 2022 Vuelta a España with five points as well. In 2019, he had won the KOM competition in the three-day Tour de Hakkaido, and he did the same in the 2021 edition of the GP Internacional Torres Vedras, another three-day stage race. Both are races I had absolutely never heard of.

 

Now he races for Caja Rural – Seguros RGA. Still waiting for his first pro cycling win, bu the’s never shy to give it his all. With 22.2 kilometers to go, Bahrain-Victorious was pulling hard in the peloton. It made no sense at first. They were pulling apart the peloton, but they were also chasing their teammate, Pickering, in the breakaway.

 

Then the camera swung to the back and we saw Junior Lecerf suffering. I’ll be generous and say that Bahrain-Victorious had noticed that and put the hammer down. It worked: Lecerf lost two minutes and fifteen seconds, and he was only ahead by 44 seconds in the general classification. Result, Bahrain’s Torsten Træen moved up a position in the standings.

 

Bou, meanwhile, Lecerf’s wheel when Bahrain made their move. Struggling, but in his wheel. Lecerf suffered all the way up those steep ramps, and Bou duly stayed in his wheel. At the finish, Lecerf was 34^th and Bou was 35^th. Strictly speaking, not his best result in a grand tour stage. But looking at the group he was in, he achieved better than expected today.

 

But zero points for Team Sylvia.

 

Watch the final kilometer HERE.

Watch the official La Vuelta highlights HERE.

Watch the extended NBC Sports highlights HERE.

Read the TNT Sports report HERE.

 

We’ve had some difficulties with the points after stage 15. Earlier stages with weird finishes (the team time trial, the stage with relegations, and the stage with no results) found their way back into the results. The standings after stage 15 were not reported correctly. It’s all been fixed now, and the points differences are not enormous. But if you thought you were in second on Sunday and now the table says you were in first, then that’s why.

Javier Romo's abandon will hurt Team Josh a little. He had scored 60 points so far, and now no more. Victor Campenaerts was picked by Team Liz and Team Sam. With 33 points so far, that affects the outcome of our game even less.

 

Team Hugo took first place today, a single point ahead of Team Will. Closer than Bernal and Landa today. Team Hugo had most points from the stage, most points overall, and they tied for most riders in the Top-25 (eight). They’re now third overall. Team Will are eleventh.

 

Team Ansel, also with eight riders in the Top-25, were third. They move back into first place.

 

Team Josh were in fourth, juste ahead of Team Amalia. They’re fifth and eighth now, respectively.

 

Team Dominic, most points from classifications, scored sixth place today, which drops them down to fourth. Team Charles lost the lead after finishing seventh today. Team Samuel were eighth, ninth overall, and Team Grace ninth, seventh overall.

 

Team Liz were tenth, Team Sam eleventh. They remain twelfth and tenth, respectively. Team Tadej were twelfth, dropping them to sixth in the standings. Team Sylvia missed the boat today, they are thirteenth today and in the standings.

 

At this point, I do not know how the riders prepare for these stages. Do they expect a summit finish? Or do they ride around with plan B in mind? Wednesday’s stage is a lot of Spanish flat with a summit finish: 8.8 kilometers at 9.7%. If a breakaway gets enough time, look today, then one of them will win. If not, then it’s a João Almeida battle with Jonas Vingegaard. Which could go either way, depending on how many riders actually will work for Almeida.

 

But if the finish is somewhere else again, then who knows? I don’t think the organizers can do much about the protests at the finish line. There are too many ways to the top, they can’t just close all the roads. The best the organizers can do is keep the new finish secret as long as possible.

 

If the riders know that, then a bunch of them will want to be in a breakaway in case there’s no summit finish. But the peloton will know this, too. So how will they react? If they want to, they can keep this together for a bunch sprint. Jasper Philipsen can win.

 

It’s impossible to predict. Let’s hope there is a stage and a stage finish tomorrow.

 

Standings after stage 16:

 

Rank	Name	Points	WAS	MOVES
1	Team Ansel*	2795	2	1
2	Team Charles*	2772	1	-1
3	Team Hugo*	2723	4	1
4	Team Dominic*	2722	3	-1
5	Team Josh*	2622	6	1
6	Team Tadej*	2588	5	-1
7	Team Grace*	2521	7	0
8	Team Amalia*	2510	9	1
9	Team Samuel*	2509	8	-1
10	Team Sam*	2051	10	0
11	Team Will*	2035	11	0
12	Team Liz*	1856	12	0
13	Team Sylvia*	1797	13	0

 

Standings after stage 16 (including adults):

 

Rank	Name	Points	WAS	MOVES
1	Team Kari	3047	1	0
2	Team Kent	2988	2	0
3	Team Craig	2920	3	0
4	Team Ansel*	2795	6	2
5	Team Charles*	2772	5	0
6	Team Mitchinson	2769	4	-2
7	Team Feng	2765	7	0
8	Team Adam	2748	8	0
9	Team Hugo*	2723	11	2
10	Team Dominic*	2722	9	-1
11	Team Chuck	2705	12	1
12	Team Corsa	2697	10	-2
13	Team Josh*	2622	14	1
14	Team Tadej*	2588	13	-1
15	Team Amelia	2587	15	0
16	Team Corey	2551	17	1
17	Team Laurens	2523	19	2
18	Team Grace*	2521	16	-2
19	Team Amalia*	2510	20	1
20	Team Samuel*	2509	18	-2
21	Team Rob	2406	21	0
22	Team Joe	2338	22	0
23	Team Jonwaine	2285	24	1
24	Team Julie	2276	23	-1
25	Team John	2240	26	1
26	Team Wes	2221	25	-1
27	Team Sam*	2051	27	0
28	Team Will*	2035	28	0
29	Team JB	1929	29	0
30	Team Doug	1864	31	1
31	Team Liz*	1856	30	-1
32	Team Sylvia*	1797	32	0
33	Team Kate	816	33	0

 

Complete breakdown of points from stage 16:

 

Name	STAGE RESULTS	RED JERSEY	GREEN JERSEY	POLKA DOT JERSEY	WHITE JERSEY	POINTS/CLASS	TOTAL	PREVIOUS	CUM. TOTAL
Team Amalia*	102	38	8	7	5	58	160	2350	2510
Team Ansel*	112	39	13	11	0	63	175	2620	2795
Team Charles*	78	45	13	6	5	69	147	2625	2772
Team Dominic*	80	48	13	6	5	72	152	2570	2722
Team Grace*	74	42	8	11	0	61	135	2386	2521
Team Hugo*	124	34	13	11	0	58	182	2541	2723
Team Josh*	104	34	13	11	0	58	162	2460	2622
Team Liz*	74	27	9	11	0	47	121	1735	1856
Team Sam*	68	30	10	11	0	51	119	1932	2051
Team Samuel*	74	42	12	11	0	65	139	2370	2509
Team Sylvia*	32	34	4	12	0	50	82	1715	1797
Team Tadej*	41	41	13	6	9	69	110	2478	2588
Team Will*	129	42	4	6	0	52	181	1854	2035

 

Complete breakdown of points from stage 16 (including adults):

 

Name	STAGE RESULTS	RED JERSEY	GREEN JERSEY	POLKA DOT JERSEY	WHITE JERSEY	POINTS/CLASS	TOTAL	PREVIOUS	CUM. TOTAL
Team Adam	105	45	8	7	5	65	170	2578	2748
Team Amalia*	102	38	8	7	5	58	160	2350	2510
Team Amelia	93	30	13	11	5	59	152	2435	2587
Team Ansel*	112	39	13	11	0	63	175	2620	2795
Team Charles*	78	45	13	6	5	69	147	2625	2772
Team Chuck	113	43	10	11	5	69	182	2523	2705
Team Corey	117	37	7	12	0	56	173	2378	2551
Team Corsa	74	42	13	7	0	62	136	2561	2697
Team Craig	85	44	13	7	9	73	158	2762	2920
Team Dominic*	80	48	13	6	5	72	152	2570	2722
Team Doug	93	26	10	5	0	41	134	1730	1864
Team Feng	109	42	13	6	0	61	170	2595	2765
Team Grace*	74	42	8	11	0	61	135	2386	2521
Team Hugo*	124	34	13	11	0	58	182	2541	2723
Team JB	64	37	7	7	0	51	115	1814	1929
Team Joe	48	27	13	12	0	52	100	2238	2338
Team John	149	30	12	6	0	48	197	2043	2240
Team Jonwaine	99	33	10	9	0	52	151	2134	2285
Team Josh*	104	34	13	11	0	58	162	2460	2622
Team Julie	66	35	12	11	3	61	127	2149	2276
Team Kari	137	52	13	6	9	80	217	2830	3047
Team Kate	50	15	0	0	0	15	65	751	816
Team Kent	112	49	13	11	9	82	194	2794	2988
Team Laurens	98	33	13	6	5	57	155	2368	2523
Team Liz*	74	27	9	11	0	47	121	1735	1856
Team Mitchinson	44	42	13	12	0	67	111	2658	2769
Team Rob	71	31	13	6	4	54	125	2281	2406
Team Sam*	68	30	10	11	0	51	119	1932	2051
Team Samuel*	74	42	12	11	0	65	139	2370	2509
Team Sylvia*	32	34	4	12	0	50	82	1715	1797
Team Tadej*	41	41	13	6	9	69	110	2478	2588
Team Wes	73	30	8	11	0	49	122	2099	2221
Team Will*	129	42	4	6	0	52	181	1854	2035

 

¡Viva la Vuelta!

 

-Laurens.