La Vuelta likes to put mountains in the first week of the race, and we have a mouth watering double header in the south of Spain. Tomorrow sees the big debut of the massive Pico de Veneta, but today's mountain top finish up the Sierra de Mijas should not be underestimated.
We have four 3rd category and two second category climbs on the approach, so by the time the riders look to climb the 11 kilometre average 8% 1st Category Mijas climb things will be really stretched.
Look for the races first GC shake out, it is expected that Santander will be showcasing their considerable talents.
The early part of the day is a big King of the Mountains opportunity, though it is the animators of the previous three stages Milka who are up their old tricks as 2nd on GC at 4 seconds Thomas De Gendt is on the attack again!
Cayetano Sarmiento Jason Donald
and Juraj Sagan
initially join him with Ben Curfs Brent Bookwalter
Renäng Benoît Vaugrenard Sebastian Lang
and
young rider jersey wearer Steven Kruijswijk joining them.
De Gendt takes the sprint, which is good enough for him to overtake Reimer on GC if the pack were to finish together today - which is unfortunately unlikely you would think.
De Gendt isn't really that close in the sprints competition, so the Belgian must be thinking of GC glory! Kruijswijk is second and Bookwalter third at the first sprint.
Kruijswijk does better at the second sprint outsprinting a keen Bookwalter and 'virtual red jersey' De Gendt.
The first third category climb is upon us and Bookwalter has looked lively this morning is spritely enough to take the first winning points ahead of young Carmuese man Curfs with Sarmiento third.
Facci, the King of the Mountains leader will likely lose his jersey today as he is not present in the break. Also resigned to losing his red leaders jersey is Martin Reimer whose Spyker team are milking their last day in the hotseat by tapping out a decent pace.
Onto the next 3rd category climb and things are beginning to spice up as Mwangi Samwel Carlos Barredo Vitor Rodrigues
attack the peloton. All three are very useful climbers so will need to be watched carefully.
They do not bridge to the breakaway before the end of this climb and Curfs teakes this one ahead of Bookwalter and Sarmiento.
It takes Curfs and Bookwalter to 10 King of the Mountains points with Sarmieto on 4. But Bookwalter re-exerts his dominence and indeed goes into the provisional King of the Mountains lead at the next climb.
Curfs is second here with De Gendt popping up in third, perhaps now Milka will look for King of the Mountains glory? But Bookwalter has now nabbed a decent 16 points with Curfs on 14, former KoM leader Facci is back on 10 points.
It will be tougher to get points for the lead two now though as they are joined by the strong climbing chasers Samwel, Barredo and Rodrigues. We 100km left of the stage and the gap is a tasty 6.41, have these climbers stolen a march here.
The pace in the pack still is not that high as evidenced by more attacks... first Andrei Grivko
Meanwhile on out 4th and last King of the Mountains Rodrigues and Samwel stretch things out.
This pace drops Lang, Sagan and Kruisjvijk which probably explains why Grivko attacked!
At the top of the 3rd category climb neither Curfs nor Bookwalter can infiltrate the points as Samwel takes the maximum over Rodrigues and Barredo.
We get more attacks from the pack: Michael Rogers Petar Panayotov Timofey Kritskiy
and Konstantin Siutsou
We move on now to the up and down lengthy 22km first of two second category climbs, a bit of a surprise early on as the breakaway breaks up with Rodrigues and Barredo ahead of Samwel and the rest.
It's 88km to go here and Samwel rather strangely eases back to the other chasers seemingly to encourage a bit more energy. Since the three had come across they seemed to be doing all the work. You fancy the climbers who have crossed have a chance as they have 5.10 on Kritskiy, Rogers, Panayotov, Kritskiy and Siutsou and a very good 7.36 on the pack.
Samwel sits in the break behind De Gendt who just may have a high GC position after today after all.
As the climb kicks up though, Samwel decides to bridge up to Rodrigues and Barredo, only young Curfs has the energy to go with the Kenyan.
Though as soon as Curfs gets up there he cracks, the young Belgian may just be able to nab the King of the Mountains jersey today if he hangs on to 4th place.
The climb has been a long one but the first real shuffle in the Vuelta and it is Rodrigues who grabs a bit of glory for Portugal by being first to the summit ahead of Samwel and Barredo.
Kritskiy climbs brilliantly and overtakes Curfs before the summit alone.
Curfs holds on for 5th and the King of the Mountains situation has Curfs and Bookwalter leading on 16 points but Samwel and Rodrigues on 14 points likely to threaten.
In the pack business is really picking up as Justo Tenorio
and David Arroyo
are really picking up the pace.
Kritskiy has allowed Curfs to come back to him, the wiggle rider appears to have sat up... why could this be?
The lead three Samwel, Rodrigues and Barredo have 4.30 on Kritskiy, Curfs now joined by Grivko, Rogers, Panayotev and Suitsou. The pack though have been reduced to just 16 and Popovich is not there so the reason fro Kritskiy's pause becomes clear.
The full list of Santanders 16 man selection is: Arroyo, Gonzalo, Valls, Tenorio, Madrazo Contador, Serpa, Dees, Morabito Camano, Sella De Weert, Valverde
and previous breakaways Bookwalter, De Gendt and Sarmiento
This has about a minute on the other favourites including red jersey Reimer, fortunately for them Maxim Iglinski
and Serge Pauwels
pull it back.
Santander push hard and pull the other breakaways apart from the lead three back, but undeterred Panayotov and Siutsou attack again as we reach the second of the two 2nd category climbs.
But with Arroyo, Tenorio and Valls on the front for Santander the attackers struggle to get very far and our breakaway of three leaders is being reduced dramatically.
Reimer who thus far has been holding on pretty well, is now beginning to slip off the back. It looks like any hopes of a further day in red are disappearing here.
At the next King of the mountains Barredo takes the full points, but it is Samwell in second place who take the provisional lead in that competition.
The debris from this climb with Santander really pulling hard on the front becomes clear on the descent things have been reduced to just 28 chasing riders.
It seems our first big selection has been made and as Santander continue to lead the pace the lead three have just two minutes at the foot of the days final climb.
Samwel the King of the Mountains elect attacks at the foot of the climb.
At the beginning of the climb it is evident that the roads are pretty narrow, positioning is important Plaza and Popovich are pretty far back.
It makes more sense to be at the other side of things, Machado, Gomez Marchente and Abal attack off the front.
The riders who were sitting a little way back get distanced this included Valverde, Popovich and Contador!
As Santander continue to close things down at the front a former Santander rider encouraged by the carnage he is causing behind David Abal attacks again. This time dragging Sella and Gomez Marchanet with him as they pass Samwel and the rest of the breakaways.
Giro runner up Sella shows once again that he is simply one of the greatest climbers in the world as he powers on alone ahead of the two Spanish riders Abal and Gomez Marchante.
Nothing from the other favourites yet and some of the dropped riders previously have sorted themselves out as now Tenorio leads an elite group with team leader Madrazo, teammates Arroyo and Valls, Intxausti,Machado, Valverde, Valls and Contador.
behind this group Popovich and Denifl are working hard with Jose Serpa holding on.
We look back further and we see Menchov, Marquez, Plaza and Pedraza struggling to keep their Vuelta high GC hopes alive.
The climb goes on like this and no attacks from Santander seemingly content to let Tenorio keep control. The young domestique does catch Abal and Gomez Marchante, though drops Valls. Even so Sella continues to plough on leading by 35 seconds with 3km to go.
We are clearing the tree line and behind Sella, the names to challenge in this years Vuelta are revelaing themselves with Madrazo now on the front ahead of Valverde, Intxausti, Arroyo, Contador, Tenorio, Gomez Marchante, Abal and Machado.
Madrazo stretches it....
The elastic to Valverde is stretching...
Last years Vuelta champion sinks back deep into his saddle he cannot keep up with Madrazo who sets off in pursuit of Sella. Seeing the weakness in Valverde, Contador now tries a dig.
No response from Valverde or Intxausti, Gomez Marchante and Abal come around to attack again.
Up front Madrazo cannot close on Sella who has bought Giro form to the Vuelta and is showing surprising resilience.
We go to the overhead and the elite climbers Sella and Madrazo have opened a huge gap to Contador and the chasing Gomez Marchante.
Sella takes the win, which signifies that the Italian is a big threat here in the Vuelta.
Madrazo finishes just 14 seconds behind, it's not completelyu dominating but is enough to take the red jersey today.
Contador crosses timed at 39 seconds, there was a brief moment when Festina's star man was misplaced but he fought back well and perhaps will kick himself for not being able to go with Madrazo at the key moment.
Gomez Marchante comes through for 4th at 59 seconds, UBS will probably be happy enough with that.
Abal has been caught by Intxausti and Valverde in the finale. Intxausti and Valverde know each other well from last year but must realise they need something extra for glory in this years Vuelta rather than cautious watching of each other.They finish at 1.17 a little way ahead of Santander pair Arroyo and Tenorio and also Machado.
At just over two minutes is Popovich and Denifl with Iglinski and Serpa just behind them.
Plaza doesn't like these steep ones and couldn't follow the pace today finishing well back at 3.22 with Menchov.
Stage results
The gaps opened up today but no eliminations, everyone finished within an hour!
GC
Reimer is down to 41st. Santander have grabbed the lead, though Madrazo cannot afford to allow Sella to take all the Mountains stages like this. Contador should get himself better positioned now he his set up in a podium place. The gaps are yet to truly open up in the GC favourites, but Plaza has lost a lot of his gained ground from the TT in one day in the mountains.
Mountains
It is pretty close in the mountains classification as Samwel takes the lead, but will probably need something tomorrow if he is to carry it through to the Pyrenees.
Teams
It was a plucky effort by Vesuvio, but they came up short of trying to hurt Santander today. Festina and Webeffect also tried with varying results. Santander took charge of the team classification today without quite dominating as much as expected.
