Eddie Dunbar (Jayco-AlUla) won a brutal 20th stage of the Vuelta a Espana (Tour of Spain) cycle race on a day that took in seven categorized climbs and finished at the top of the demanding Picon Blanco.

Dunbar was able to hold onto a slender lead over the group of overall race leaders, despite late attacks from Enric Mas (Movistar) and Mikel Landa (T Rex-Quick Step).

Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-Bora-Hasngrohe) was able to defend his lead and enjoys an advantage of two minutes and two seconds into the final stage of the race, which is Sunday’s short time-trial into Madrid.

The Slovenian, who is a strong time-trialist, should have few problems in defending his jersey and being crowed as La Vuelta winner for the fourth time.

Ben O’Connor (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale), who led until Friday’s stage, defended second place in the overall standings and now leads third-placed Mas by nine seconds, while Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) is fourth 58 seconds behind O’Connor and will need to produce a special perfor
mance on Sunday to get onto the podium.

Jay Vine and Marc Soler (UAE Team Emirates) were both in a breakaway as the teammates continued their head-to-head battle to claim the blue and white jersey for the best climber, which Vine was able to claim when he crossed the day’s penultimate climb in fourth place.

La Vuelta finishes on Sunday with a short 24.6 kilometer time-trial into the center of Madrid. Enditem

Source: The Namibia Press Agency