Today's Stage: Another uphill
finish. But this one on a long but not steep category two climb and
after more hills than mountains. Not expected to be major battling
territory. We were wrong.
Who won today's stage? Alberto
Contador (Saxo Bank-Tinkoff) got his first win since his suspension
with a combination of insane long range attacking and incredible team
tactics (more on that later).
What matters in the GC race?
Contador is now the overall leader and he is the leader by a
significant margin over Alejandro Valverde (Movistar), who pretty
much emptied the tank to catch try and catch Contador on the final
climb. He didn't quite make it, losing seven seconds after being down
by two minutes at one point. The big loser was Joaquin Rodriguez
(Katusha). The former leader overall lost 2'38” to Contador today
and fell to third place on a stage that didn't look all that
troubling. As for the rest, fourth place Chris Froome (Team Sky) is
now over nine minutes behind Contador.
What matters in the other
competitions?
Green Jersey (Points) – The GC
men are now battling for this after having battled on today's stage,
a likely breakaway stage that might a keep a sprinter in the
competition. Rodriguez is still the leader followed by Valverde and
Contador. Of the rest, only sprinter John Degenkolb (Argos-Shimano)
and Froome have yet to be mathematically eliminated though that will
certainly come for Froome tomorrow.
Polka Dot Jersey (King of the
Mountains, it's blue in Spain, not red) – Simon Clarke
(Orica-GreenEdge) retained his lead again. And he will until Saturday
as there are no categorized climbs either tomorrow or Friday before
the final massive stage to Bola del Mundo. Rodriguez is second and
Thomas De Gendt (Vacansoleil) is third. Expect both Clarke and De
Gendt to try and get in the breakaway on Saturday searching for the
points needed to take the final jersey as that is the only day
remaining with points available.
White Jersey (Allround, instead of
young rider, calculated by adding the rankings in GC, Points and KoM,
lowest score wins) – Despite the issues today, Rodriguez
retains the lead here and still won't be wearing the jersey (he will
be wearing Green tomorrow). This jersey, worn by Contador will return
to Valverde, at least during the race.
Team Classification (top 3 times by
team on each stage) – Valverde's Movistar team has blown this
open. Barring a catastrophe, the team will win this prize as it now
leads by over 17 minutes.
Biggest surprise: Katusha fell
asleep at the wheel when their leader needed them most. At one point
early on, Contador and Valverde got ahead of the peloton together.
This should have been the warning bell that something different might
be happening. Katusha didn't heed it. What they ended up with was
multiple groups on the road when Contador attacked and Saxo Bank
riders in every one of them and Movistar riders in every one of them.
Meanwhile, Katusha was ground down to nothing quickly. Rodriguez had
to work all alone in his group to try and bring Contador back, so
much so that he couldn't go when Valverde attacked out of his group.
Had he managed to hold Valverde's wheel, he would have made up some
of the time he lost (and Valverde would have sat up). Given all of
this, where were the likes of Daniel Moreno and Denis Menchov. Those
guys are the mountain domestiques for Rodriguez. Moreno has been
good, but not there at all on the business end of stages despite
being in fifth place overall. Menchov has been in his usual invisible
man act, nowhere to be seen. Unlike past races, that means he is
never seen instead of never seen before the finish. Obviously,
Rodriguez didn't have great legs today, but that happens to a lot of
riders coming off the rest day. His team needs to pick him up and it
was surprising that in his time of most need, they were nowhere to be
seen.
Biggest disappointment:
Contador's armada of other helpers showed up today. Back at the 2011
Giro, I bemoaned the tactics as every non-Italian team in the field
either did nothing at all or helped Contador even though he was
dominating the race. Today, it was the same. Yes, there were Saxo
Bank riders all over the road, but the man who did the biggest pull
for Contador was Paulo Tiralongo (Astana). Yes, Astana. Tiralongo is
a former Contador teammate who testified on Contador's behalf at his
Court of Arbitration for Sport doping hearing. Last year, Tiralongo
helped Contador quite a few times and was gifted a stage win for his
efforts. This year, it was so blatant that Tiralongo was getting
water from the Saxo Bank team car. Ridiculous. If I'm Vincenzo Nibali
and I have signed with Astana next season, I'm worried. If Contador
is in the race, Tiralongo has shown he will work for Contador. What
happens when his teammate and his friend are battling. Who does
Tiralongo help? The answer was clear today. That is Contador.
Other items of note: So why did
this work today whereas everything in the higher mountains fail?
Simple. Different kind of climb, different kind of stage. Contador
became the best stage racer in the world by winning at the Tour de
France, famous for long, grinding climbs. The Alps with its 20 km
climbs at 6% gradient, not the steep monsters we have seen all race
thus far. Today, with over 20 km at an average of 3.9% was a more
Alpine climb and Contador took advantage... Some had bemoaned the
lack of another time trial, but the riders do indeed make the race.
Contador and his team essentially made today's stage a time trial and
Contador was of course going to win that over Rodriguez... With four
days to go, some of the weak field of sprinters that showed up here
have to be thinking why they bothered. While the next two days and
the final day look like sprints, it also looks like John Degenkolb
territory. Degenkolb has won every bunch sprint of the race so far
and there is no reason why he shouldn't win a couple more over the
next four days.
What is coming tomorrow? Sprint
stage. No climbs. Boredom.
Tomorrow's Prediction:
Degenkolb.
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