Today's Stage: Another summit
finish. This Vuelta isn't messing around.
Who won today's stage? Alejandro
Valverde (Movistar) got his second stage win of the Vuelta,
outkicking Joaquin Rodriguez (Katusha) and Alberto Contador (Saxo
Bank-Tinkoff) at the line.
What matters in the GC race? We
now know for certain that there are only four men who have a chance
to win this Vuelta. Overall leader Joaquin Rodriguez; Chris Froome
(Team Sky), 4th on the stage today and 2nd
overall; Alberto Contador, 3rd on both the stage and
overall; and stage winner Valverde, 4th overall. These
four have been the guys there at the end of every summit finish
except the one where Valverde was caught in the crash and these four
are the only ones under a minute on GC.
What matters in the other
competitions?
Green Jersey (Points) – John
Degenkolb (Argos-Shimano) continues to lead, but with a mountain
stage, his lead was cut to 10 points (25 is earned for a stage win).
Valverde is second and Rodriguez is third.
Polka Dot Jersey (King of the
Mountains, it's blue in Spain, not red) – By virtue of his win
at the summit, Valverde assumed the lead from Simon Clarke
(Orica-GreenEdge). The biggest question is where is David Moncoutie
(Cofidis)? Moncoutie has won this classification the last four years,
but has yet to score a point this year.
White Jersey (Allround, instead of
young rider, calculated by adding the rankings in GC, Points and KoM,
lowest score wins) – Rodriguez and Valverde are now tied, but
both of them have another jersey to wear tomorrow. That means 3rd
place Chris Froome will be wearing the white jersey. Have I ever
mentioned how this jersey seems redundant given that someone who wins
one of the other jerseys will often win this one too?
Team Classification (top 3 times by
team on each stage) – Rabobank may not win the Vuelta, but
their climbers are going well if not elite. The squad has three men
in the top 10 overall and those three (Gesink, Ten Dam and Mollema)
have paced Rabobank to a lead of 2'27” over AG2R La Mondiale. Sky,
with its train and domestiques thing it does to set up its team
leaders often loses time here on mountain stages despite having a
very strong team and today is no exception. They dropped from leading
to 3rd, 2'34” behind.
Biggest surprise: Igor Anton
(Euskatel) was there near the end. A few days ago he was in the
disappointment section for being dropped on a climb he probably
shouldn't have been and then he was one of the first top GC men to
crack on stage 6. Still, Anton was good today, losing only 33 second
and finishing 7th on the stage to move back up to 8th
overall.
Biggest disappointment: A
challenger to the big four didn't appear today. It certainly seems as
though there are others with the legs to challenge Rodriguez, Froome,
Contador and Valverde, but they are teammates (Daniel Moreno of
Katusha and the Uran/Henao pair for Team Sky). Other than that, there
have been high hopes for a Dutch challenge by Gesnik or Mollema, but
they have settled firmly into the second tier headed for a top ten
finish. If anyone else wants to join this party, it will have to be
quick (like on the time trial on Monday).
Other items of note: At the USA
Pro Challenge, Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Sharp) got his second stage win
of that race. The riders there have a true summit finish today
followed by a time trial to decide things tomorrow. Should be a fun
race to watch... Tomorrow brings an important prep race for the
upcoming World Championships, the GP Ouest in France. Peter Sagan
(Liquigas-Cannondale) will be back in action there.
What is coming tomorrow? Another
sprint stage with a tricky category three climb near the end. If
Argos-Shimano doesn't think John Degenkolb can get over the hill,
they may not chase and a breakaway might be allowed to go for the
second time in the Vuelta (Simon Clarke's win was from a breakaway
that was nearly caught on the final climb).
Tomorrow's Prediction: Breakaway
wins. Time for the stage hunters to come out and play.
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