IGUALADA, Spain – Frenchman Nicolas Edet became the new overall leader in the Vuelta a Espana on Saturday, as German rider Nikias Arndt sprinted to victory on stage eight in the province of Barcelona.
Team Sunweb’s Arndt finished out front among the 20 breakaway riders in the hilly ride through Catalonia from Valls to Igualada, holding his nerve in the slippery conditions to claim his second Grand Tour stage win, his first since the 2016 Giro d’Italia.
Edet came 11th in the stage to snatch the red jersey from Miguel Angel Lopez, and take an overall lead of two minutes 21 seconds over Belgian Dylan Teuns, while Lopez is three minutes and one second down in third.
With a gruelling mountain stage coming on Sunday in Andorra, the previous days’ general classification leaders’ group containing Lopez and Primoz Roglic opted to save their energy and came in nine minutes 24 seconds behind Arndt.
%%%twitter https://twitter.com/NikiasArndt?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@NikiasArndtel más rápido mientras @NicoEdet toma el liderato. Revívelo en 1'
⏯ A numerous break made it to Igualada, with Nikias Arndt taking the stage and Nicolas Edet the lead in the GC. The 1' summary pic.twitter.com/t4JFKeqx3J
— La Vuelta (@lavuelta)