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Mads Pedersen after his victory in the final sprint
Photo: IMAGO/DAVID PINTENS / IMAGO/Belga
Pascal Ackermann had tried everything, but in the end it was only enough for third place.
The sprinter boldly drove ahead on Friday on the 13th stage of the Vuelta from Ronda to Montilla and opened the sprint to the finish line early.
Too early.
In the end, the 28-year-old from Kandel was missing the last grain on the slightly uphill home straight.
The Danish professional cyclist Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo) won ahead of the Frenchman Bryan Coquard (Cofidis).
Ackermann (UAE Team Emirates) missed the first German day victory of this year's Tour of Spain.
In the overall standings, Belgian Remco Evenepoel (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl), who had recovered well from his minor fall injuries from the previous day, continues to lead ahead of Slovenian Vuelta series winner Primoz Roglič (Jumbo-Visma/+2:41 minutes) and dem Spanish local hero Enric Mas (Movistar/+3:03).
Ayuso is allowed to start despite a positive corona test
Before the stage, the Spaniard Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates), fifth overall, started despite a positive corona test.
"He is asymptomatic and the PCR analysis has shown that he has a very low risk of infection - similar to the cases of this year's Tour de France," said his racing team on Twitter.
Among other things, the Luxembourgish professional Bob Jungels was allowed to continue on the Tour of France despite two positive tests because the virus load was classified as low.
The weekend sees the next two showdowns between overall leader Evenepoel, who is the first Belgian to win the red jersey in 45 years, and his closest rivals Roglič and Mas.
First, the 14th stage leads over 160.3 km from Montoro to the mountain finish in Sierra de La Pandera, before the 15th stage with over 4000 meters of altitude and the brutal final climb in the high mountains of Sierra Nevada will demand everything from the drivers.
kjo/dpa
