Today's Stage: A transitional
sprint stage before the mountains. Breakaway or sprint was possible
instead of the inevitable sprints of previous flatter stages.
Who won today's stage? Steve
Cummings (BMC) attacked from the breakaway with four km to go and
made it stick as someone with his track background should if in a
breakaway.
What matters in the GC race?
Nothing. All the contenders finished in the main group. Joaquin
Rodriguez (Katusha) continues to lead Alberto Contador (Saxo
Bank-Tinkoff) by 13 seconds.
What matters in the other
competitions?
Green Jersey (Points) – Sadly
for John Degenkolb (Argos-Shimano), the breakaway consisted of a
group of really strong riders and they stayed away. This cost him a
chance at another stage win and it cost him in the points chase as he
still trails overall leader Rodriguez going into three high mountain
days where he will never score points and Rodriguez will.
Polka Dot Jersey (King of the
Mountains, it's blue in Spain, not red) – The day was
climbless. Therefore, Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) continues to lead
over Rodriguez before the next three days remake the classification.
Expect David Moncoutie (Cofidis), the four time defending champion in
this category, in the break tomorrow looking for points and his
annual stage win.
White Jersey (Allround, instead of
young rider, calculated by adding the rankings in GC, Points and KoM,
lowest score wins) – With Rodriguez leading or second in every
category, he will lead this until he cracks. If he does crack,
Valverde is the likely beneficiary.
Team Classification (top 3 times by
team on each stage) – Flat stages just don't do much in this
category. Rabobank still leads.
Biggest surprise: The break
stayed away. All day long, the breakaway never got a huge advantage.
Still, they stayed away as nobody wanted to help Degenkolb's
Argos-Shimano team get another win. Among the other sprinters at the
Vuelta, Ben Swift (Team Sky) is freelancing on a team built around
Chris Froome, Allan Davis (Orica-GreenEdge) had two teammates in the
breakaway, Nacer Bouhanni (FDJ) left the race injured after being
involved in the big crash yesterday and Elia Viviani (Liquigas) went
into the break himself (he was dropped by the other six in the final
10 km).
Biggest disappointment:
Disappointment? No way. There is no disappointment today. Degenkolb's
wins have been of the soul-killing boredom variety. So having a
tension filled finish where the break stayed away and no GC men lost
time means a happy stage today.
Other items of note: Other than
Bouhanni, two other riders left the race today. They were Morris
Possoni (Lampre) and Hayden Roulston (RSNT)... Interestingly, today's
stage winner Cummings was the only British rider entered at the Tour
de France who failed to win a stage. The others (Wiggins, Froome,
Cavendish and Millar) all won at least one in France.
What is coming tomorrow? Circle
of Death, part 1. Three small climbs before a category one climb and
then a finish atop the category one Puerto de Ancares. Last year, the
race climbed the Puerto de Ancares in the middle of stage 13 won by
Michael Albasini (then HTC-High Road, now Orica-GreenEdge).
Tomorrow's Prediction: Alberto
Contador will finally show his true power and win the stage, but
Rodriguez and Valverde will be close.
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