Today's stage: 172 km with the second half all climbs to a new summit finish at La Farrapona.
Who won today's stage? Rein Taaramae (Cofidis) recovered from his sickness earlier in the race to get in a 17-man breakaway and then be the only one to survive to the finish for his first career GT stage win.
What matters in the GC race? Bradley Wiggins and Chris Froome (both Team Sky) dieseled their way up the final climb and dropped many of the other contenders. Among the carnage was defending champion Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Cannondale), Fredrik Kessiakoff (Astana), Jani Brajkovic (Radio Shack) and Haimar Zubeldia (Radio Shack). In addition, Juan Jose Cobo (Geox-TMC) attacked the GC group and took second on the stage.
The new top five is:
1 Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky)
2 Chris Froome (Team Sky), +7”
3 Bauke Mollema (Rabobank), +36”
4 Juan Jose Cobo (Geox-TMC), +55”
5 Jakob Fuglsang (Leopard-Trek), +58”
Needless to say, things look good for Team Sky. They could actually finish 1-2 on the GC. We haven't seen that in a long time. I believe the last time was in the 2008 Vuelta with Alberto Contador winning and Levi Leipheimer second.
What matters in the other competitions?
Green Jersey (Points, Sprinter Competition) – Rodriguez is still the leader and he needs to go for this classification to salvage something considering he is now nearly out of the top 20 on the GC and over 4 minutes back. Mollema got a few points to close within 3 of Rodriguez and pass Peter Sagan (Liqugas-Cannondale) for second place.
Polka Dot Jersey (King of the Mountains) – Leader David Moncoutie's Cofidis teammate Taaramae absorbed most of the points in the breakaway meaning no changes in this competition today.
White Jersey (Allround) – The GC remaking allowed Mollema to catch Daniel Moreno (Rabobank) once again and regain the jersey. Mollema and Moreno are tied but Mollema leads by virtue of being placed higher on GC.
Biggest surprise: The GC group let Cobo go, allowing him to get back into the overall race. Don't know what Wiggins was thinking. He dropped everyone but Mollema and his teammate Froome, but he still has nearly as many threats because of letting Cobo get free for a small gap and a time bonus.
Biggest disappointment: Nibali's collapse. The others who lost time had either shown vulnerabilities at some point or were largely unknown contending for the first time. Neither was the case for Nibali. He hadn't been dropped on a climb except by Rodriguez on the steep finishes to otherwise flat stages where everyone got dropped and he is the defending champion with two additional podiums in the Giro d'Italia. His time loss was totally unexpected, especially considering most thought of him as the true race favorite despite Wiggins' presence in the lead. Nibali is now 7th overall, 1'25” behind.
Other items of note: There was a big crash today that caused Karsten Kroon to abandon after he went over a guardrail and into the forest below... Geox-TMC is now ahead by a significant margin in the team competition after David de la Fuente finished 3rd on the stage along with Cobo's 2nd and a top 15 finish by Denis Menchov. Leopard-Trek is second, 2' 26” behind and everyone else is cooked, 18 minutes or more behind.
What is coming tomorrow? Angliru. The most fearsome climb in Spain with gradients as high as 23%. The GC will likely be decided here as there is only one summit finish left and nobody seems able or willing to attack.
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