Today's stage: 47 km time trial. That is longer than most are used to riding.
Who won today's stage? Tony Martin (HTC-High Road) backed up his Tour de France time trial victory with another here, beating World Champion Fabian Cancellara (Leopard-Trek) again and installing himself as the co-favorite for the World Championships with the four-time champ Cancellara.
What matters in the GC race? Chris Froome (Team Sky) finished 2nd on the stage, beating his teammate Bradley Wiggins who was expected to challenge for the race lead. Froome's position put himself into the overall lead over his teammate Wiggins who is now 3rd. Jakob Fuglsang (Leopard-Trek) is now 2nd overall, looking to regain the red jersey he held after the day 1 Team Time Trial. Defending champion Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Cannondale) is now 4th overall. Further back, are the overall leaders from the last two days. Bauke Mollema (Rabobank) wore the red jersey and started last. While he caught and passed Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha), he still lost enough time to fall to 7th overall, 1'07” behind the new leader Froome. As for Rodriguez, he now is in 14th, 3'23” behind and is likely to have to make long distance attacks on the remaining mountain stages to get back into the race.
What matters in the other competitions?
Green Jersey (Points, Sprinter Competition) – No changes here as Rodriguez still leads. Given his positioning so far back in the GC, he might want to consider targeting this competition this year instead of the GC. Normally it is for the sprinters, but there is a lack of sprint stages and four more summit finishes for Rodriguez to accumulate points.
Polka Dot Jersey (King of the Mountains) – No changes here as Dan Martin (Garmin-Cervelo) still leads. Once again, he might want to consider targeting this competition as lost a ton of time and is now in 24th, 4'58” behind Froome.
White Jersey (Allround) – Mollema still leads here. He will wear the jersey for the first time Wednesday as he was in the red leader's jersey today.
Biggest surprise: Froome's ride was so impressive. He has been good in the time trial, but Wiggins beat him by over a minute and a half at the British Time Trial Championship. There was no way to predict he would beat Wiggins and certainly no thought that he could finish 2nd on the stage, beating Cancellara along the way.
Biggest disappointment: Rodriguez lost so much time. I know its better than last season, but he was just terrible today. Considering he is now well over 3 minutes back, the GC is most likely out for him, even with all the summit finishes. I expected a little better, not getting passed on the road by an average TT'er like Mollema.
Other items of note: Cancellara and Martin were using this race to prep for the World Championships in Copenhagen, Denmark next month. Wiggins is too, but the GC here is his first priority... Taylor Phinney (BMC), the only American in the field as the rest of the Americans are either injured or raced in Colorado at the USA Pro Cycling Challenge, finished 5th in this, his specialty... Sebastian Lang finished safely in 38th in his quest to be the only man to finish all three Grand Tours... The team competition is really starting to get going now. Leopard-Trek leads Radio Shack by 7 seconds and Rabobank by 2'07”.
What is coming tomorrow? Rest day tomorrow and much needed. When racing resumes Wednesday, there will be bad weather (rain in forcast) and a summit finish new to the Vuelta to start remaking the GC again.
Despite the cracking two days that Froome has had, I reckon he'll fade down the stretch, much like TJVG last year-he's showing that he's one to watch in future rather than staking a claim to this years event.
ReplyDeleteI reckon the later mountains won't suit Wiggo as much (all of them, not just the Angliru), but he'll continue to ride consistently while others fluctuate. He'll lose tiny dribs and drabs on each summit finish, but others will play good day/bad day like they did last year, gaining and losing big chunks, while Nibali and Wiggins ride metronomically to the finish. You called it right with Nibali, but I reckon Wiggins could make the third step.