Today's stage: 183 km to a summit finish at La Covatilla.
Who won today's stage? Dan Martin (Garmin-Cervelo) took a mountaintop sprint from a small group of six to take the win.
What matters in the GC race? We have a new leader in race. Bauke Mollema (Rabobank) finished second on the stage and in the process swiped the leader's red jersey from Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) who cracked on the climb and lost time. Rodriguez is now second, one second behind Mollema and defending champion Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Cannondale) is third, nine seconds behind Mollema. The stage today also compressed the GC going into the time trial. 13 riders are within a minute of the lead and and additional five riders are within two minutes.
What matters in the other competitions?
Green Jersey (Points, Sprinter Competition) – Rodriguez retains the lead he had here despite losing the overall lead. Mollema is now second.
Polka Dot Jersey (King of the Mountains) – Martin took the lead in this competition with his summit victory. Former leader Daniel Moreno (Katusha) is now in third as co-leader yesterday Matteo Montaguti (Ag2r-La Mondiale) also passed him in the standings.
White Jersey (Allround) – Mollema also took the lead in this competition, followed by Rodriguez. Moreno, who has lead the competition for much of the race, finally will wear the jersey as he no longer is the leader in one of the other competitions like he has been since the stage 4 mountain finish as Sierra Nevada.
Biggest surprise: Team Sky was the team to shatter the race. Sky is riding for Bradley Wiggins and while he is a good climber, he specializes in the time trial. Seeing him and teammate Chris Froome driving the front of the race to drop Rodriguez and many others was a big shock.
Biggest disappointment: A lot of favorites were dropped on the climb relatively early. In addition to Rodriguez's struggles, his teammate Moreno was dropped early on. Moreno ultimately regained his legs, caught Rodriguez and paced him to the finish. Michele Scraponi (Lampre-ISD) led early and had good legs on the lower slopes, but he was also dropped and lost time, falling to 18th place overall. Finally, Igor Anton (Euskatel) had looked to be regaining his legs yesterday. It appears that is not the case as he struggled the entire time until being dropped. He sits 30th overall, 4'31” behind.
Other items of note: Juan Jose Cobo (Geox-TMC) is likely the new leader on the road for his team. His more accomplished teammates Denis Menchov (3 GT wins including 2 Vueltas) and Carlos Sastre (2008 Tour de France winner) both cracked again today and only Menchov sits anywhere near the top of the standings... Sebastian Lang (Omega Pharma-Lotto) was the main animator of the breakaway today. He is attempting to be the only man to start and finish all three Grand Tours this season before he retires at the end of the season.
What is coming tomorrow? Time trial. The only one of the race and the most important day thus far. Bradley Wiggins enters as the top GC man for the race while Fabian Cancellara (Leopard-Trek) is the favorite to win the stage in preparation for his World Championship defense a month from now. Also amongst the GC guys, Joaquim Rodriguez is in danger of losing a ton of time tomorrow. He lost last year's Vuelta in the time trial when he finished 105th, over 6 minutes behind stage winner Peter Velits. A similar performance would leave him as nothing more than a stage hunter for the rest of the race.
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