Today's Stage: Circle of Death –
Part 3. By far the hardest stage of these three days in the mountains
and quite possibly the 'Queen Stage' (that would be hardest stage) of
the race (Stage 20 up the Bola del Mundo is also under consideration
for 'Queen Stage')
Who won today's stage? Dario
Cataldo (OPQS) and Thomas De Gendt (Vacansoleil) battled together for
the stage win as the only breakaway survivors. Cataldo was able to
drop De Gendt on Cuitu Negru and then survive one of the slowest
stage finishes ever. Both Cataldo and De Gendt nearly fell off their
bikes in exhaustion just at the sight of the finish line and the
final three km took them over 15 minutes to complete.
What matters in the GC race?
Overall leader Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) took the sprint for third
over Alberto Contador (Saxo Bank-Tinkoff), taking the time bonues and
extending his lead again, now up to 28 seconds. Just behind them was
Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) who confirmed his podium place in part
because Chris Froome (Team Sky) finally exploded, losing over two
minutes to the leaders.
What matters in the other
competitions?
Green Jersey (Points) – More
points for Rodriguez. His lead is now 52 over 4th place
John Degenkolb (Argos-Shimano), the main contender considering the
other two in between are Valverde and Contador. Rodriguez can seal
the jersey with a win on Wednesday or a win atop the Bola del Mundo
on Saturday. Even without those, Degenkolb likely needs to win all
three remaining possible sprint stages on Thursday, Friday and Sunday
to take the jersey. Looks unlikely.
Polka Dot Jersey (King of the
Mountains, it's blue in Spain, not red) – Simon Clarke
(Orica-GreenEdge) is now holding on for dear life as the GC men
continue to take points on all the uphill and summit finishes. In
addition, stage runner De Gendt has appeared in 3rd place
and De Gendt has been very strong in week three of the last two Grand
Tours he has entered. I suspect he will be in the breakaway looking
for the King of the Mountains win on the Bola del Mundo stage with
its three category one climbs before the final run up the huge climb
at the end.
White Jersey (Allround, instead of
young rider, calculated by adding the rankings in GC, Points and KoM,
lowest score wins) – Same as it ever was. Even Froome cracking
today changed nothing. Rodriguez still leads (as expected). Valverde
is second and Contador is third. Froome is fourth but falling further
behind every day as he is in the GC battle.
Team Classification (top 3 times by
team on each stage) – Movistar has really extended this out the
last couple of days. With three riders in the top 11 on the stage,
they are now over 12 minutes ahead of second place Katusha.
Biggest surprise: Froome
exploded as bad as he did. We have seen the signs that this was
coming, but it looked like Froome was doing a good job of limiting
his losses to a few seconds. Today, that was just not the case. As
soon as the leaders went, Froome was with the second tier GC group
and was beaten by many of them including Gesink, Ten Dam, Anton and
Talansky.
Biggest disappointment: With the
exception of Movistar domestique Nairo Quintana, nobody has stayed
with the leader the last three days. Just once in this race, I would
like to see the likes of Gesink and Talansky attacking with the
leaders. Of course that would means risking positions if the attack
failed so those riders are content to grind away.
Other items of note: Another two
men dropped out of the race today. Pablo Lechuga (Andalucia) and
Cameron Meyer (Orica-GreenEdge) were the two and there are now 17 men
out of the race. As a whole, this has been a low-attrition race. The
eventual toll of the stage 6 crash in the Tour de France alone was
12, when including those involved who dropped out on later stages.
What is coming tomorrow? Rest
day tomorrow and then a long but not very steep ascent up a category
2 climb to finish.
Tomorrow's Prediction:
Breakaway. Someone from both Caja Rural and Andalucia will be in it
along with those in the mid-teens region on GC looking to sneak away
and move into the top 10.
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