OVIEDO, Spain (AP) — American veteran Christopher Horner took the lead of the Spanish Vuelta in a mountainous 19th stage won by Joaquim Rodriguez on Friday.
Entering the day 3 seconds behind overnight leader Vincenzo Nibali, the 41-year-old Horner pulled away from the Giro d’Italia champion over the final uphill ascent to the finish line to claim a 3-second lead with just two days left.
Rodriguez used an explosive burst of speed to get his first stage victory of this edition with a winning time of more than 4 hours.
The penultimate stage is an 88-mile course that takes riders over three major summits before a last ascent of a special-category climb to the Alto de l’Angliru peak before the traditional finish in Madrid on Sunday.
