Almost Gesink, almost. But he gain time on Cobo, wich is good.

@ all: close indeed. The upcoming ITT will shake up the GC, I think. The goal will be to be faster than Cobo, and minimize the loss to Contador.

It's time for the only ITT in this Vuelta a Espana. 42 kilometres with start and finish in Salamanca. The route is almost flat, with only 313 height metres.


The first rider to set a time that can be good enough to finish in the top 10 is our Lieuwe Westra. He needs 57'56 for the 42 kilometres.


His time lasts for about half an hour. Edvald Boasson Hagen is faster, but only 10 seconds. New best time: 57'46.


Caja Rurals best time trialist Gustavo César Veloso rides the best time trial of his last few years. He can't beat EB Hagen, but puts himslef between the Norwegian and Westra with a time of 57'49.


Rein Taaramäe has had a pretty disappointing Vuelta so far, but fially shows his potential. He is 4 seconds faster than EB Hagen: 57'42.


With the windmills in the scenery, but without Don Quijote, Bradley Wiggins shows his quality in time trialling. He is '52 faster than Taaramäe, and needs 56'50 for the 42 kilometres. Is there anybody who can beat that?


Thomas De Gendt needs a good ITT to improve his GC-position. The Belgian shows why he transferred to Radio Shack to get the role of team leader in a GT, and sets the 2nd time so far, only '21 behind Wiggins.


GC's number 5 Javier Moreno loves climbing, but hates time trialling. Still, the 33rd time so far, 3'16 slower than Wiggins ain't that bad and will keep him in 5th place in the GC.

_______________________________________________________________________

Times at 1st checkpoint:
1. B. Wiggins 17'16; 2. T. De Gendt + '6; 3. J. Cobo + '10; 4. A. Contador + '17; 5. R. Taaramäe + '18; 7. C. Barredo + '21; 17. R. Gesink + '43.

Knowing you, this will improve, as Gesink will fly in the 2nd part of the TT.

Alberto Contador starts the ITT pretty quick and sets the 4th time at the first checkpoint. But in the next 16 kilometres, he looses ground, 27 more seconds to Wiggins and 5 places.


The landscape must look familiar for Robert Gesink, with wind mills and blac and white cows. Probably he is enjoying it too much in the first 2/3 of the race, as he sets the 11th time at the 2nd check point, '51 slower than Wiggins.


Juan José Cobo contimues his fast start, and maintains in 3rd position so far, '24 behind Wiggins. It looks like he is doing the best thing for the GC here!


Even tough Carlos Barredo is riding the ITT of his life, he will loose the red jersey today. He sets the 10th time at the 2nd check point at '46.

_______________________________________________________________________

Times at 2nd chack point:
1. B. Wiggins 38'03; 2. T. De Gendt + '13; 3. J. Cobo + '24; 4. R. Taaramäe + '35; 5. E. Hagen + '40; 9. A. Contador + '44; 10. C. Barrdo + '46; 11. R. Gesink + '51.

Come on Gesink, I hope he rides a very strong last "half"!

Alberto Contador isn't in the form to win this Vuelta. Why? Becuase he can't keep his pace, and keeps on loosing ground to Wiggins. He sets the 8th time so far, 1'05 behind Wiggins and even a few seconds slower than his team mates Siutsou and Astarloza!


Contrary to Contador, Robert Gesink shows that he can win his 2nd GT of the year. He is known for his fast 2nd part of the ITT, and does so this time. To everybody's surprise, he is ever faster than iggins and sets the new best timw: 56'46!!


Juan José Cobo rides a better ITT than expected, and sets the 4th time so far, '41 slower than Gesink. But this means that he has lost 1'36 in the last 13 kilometres....


It was 2 nice days in the red jersey for Carlos Barredo. Even one of the best ITT's of his life (12th at 1'14) isn't enough for him to keep the GC-lead.

1	Robert Gesink	Petronas - Monster Energy	56'46
2	Bradley Wiggins	Dexia	+ 4
3	Thomas De Gendt	Radio Shack - Nissan	+ 25
4	Juan José Cobo	Dexia	+ 41
5	Rein Taaramäe	Sony Ericsson	+ 56
6	Edvald Boasson Hagen	Dexia	+ 1'00
7	Gustavo César Veloso	Caja Rural	+ 1'03
8	Kanstantsin Siutsou	Movistar Team	+ 1'06
9	Mikel Astarloza	Movistar Team	+ 1'08
10	Alberto Contador	Movistar Team	+ 1'09
11	Lieuwe Westra	Petronas - Monster Energy	+ 1'10

1	Robert Gesink	Petronas - Monster Energy	37h33'21
2	Juan José Cobo	Dexia	+ 8
3	Carlos Barredo	Movistar Team	+ 35
4	Alberto Contador	Movistar Team	+ 1'28
5	Javier Moreno	Caja Rural	+ 4'19
6	Thomas De Gendt	Radio Shack - Nissan	+ 4'53
7	Robert Kiserlovski	Pro Team Astana	+ 5'03
8	Stefan Denifl	Red Bull - Cervélo	+ 6'29
9	Amets Txurruka	Andalucía - Catalunya	+ 6'46
10	Mikel Astarloza	Movistar Team	+ 7'26

This result was more than we dreamt of. Winning the big ITT in a GT, and also taking over the leader's jersey is something we have never achieved before in the existence of the team!!
Tomorrow is a rest day, the day after finishes at the Estación de Montaña Manzaneda.

Hopes Robert can survive next mountains and get his 2nd GT. Great job in TT,btw!

Congrats with your win! And now try to keep the leader jersey.

amazing result! super time trial and famous 8 seconds in the lead now!

Gesink!!! Here comes Luigi.

That's great!

Fantastic result

Happy spring cleaning!

red jersey I m happy now

Okay, the windows in the kitchen, living room and bedrooms are clean again, so it's time for PCM

The stage after the first rest day is up and down all day long. The total amount of height metres of the 162 kilometres between Verín and the Estación de Montaña Manzaneda is 3856, with the finish after a 27 kilometre climb (average gradient 5.1%) at an altitude of 1750m.



As more often this Vuelta, it's Gregory Bernard in the BOTD. He can collect KOTM-points this way, and we don't have to chase the BOTD. Today, he is in the attack with Ruiz (Andalucía), Danielson (Garmin), Fleeman (Sky), Sprick (Europcar), Rubiano (Radio Shack), Crawford (Qantas) and Prades (Euskaltel). With 69km to go, the margin to the peloton is 6'04, and decreasing.



The peloton arrives at the summit of the Alto de Ermida, with the Dexia-boys doing the pace for JJ Cobo. The 8 leaders have a margin of 3'08, with Kanstantsin Siutsou (Movistar), Remy Di Gregorio (Europcar) and Mikel Nieve (Astana) busy bridging the gap.



The final ascend to the Estaciön de Montaña Manzaneda (from now on it's called Manzaneda) has begun, and with 24 of the 27km to go, the first major attack takes place. Amets Txurukka (GC's 9th) attacks, and he gets countered by Alberto Contador! Yes, the number 4 of the GC launches a surprisingly early attack.



Di Gregorio, Nieve and Siutsou have joined the leading group (Bernard has been dropped already), and now not only Txurukka and Contador join them, but also GC's 3rd Carlos Barredo. Apparantly, Movistar is planning a coup here to regain the red jersey. They already have a margin of 50 seconds to the chasing group, with Dexia still leading.



When also Juan Mauricio Soler (GC's 11th) attacks out of the chasing peloton, Juan José Cobo (GC's 2nd) decides that this is enough and counters. And so does Mikel Astarloza (GC's 9th), trying to become the 4t Movistar-rider in the leading group.
At this point in the race, Robert Gesink has only got Jelle Vanendert left to help him, and the Belgian gradually brings him to the leading group.



When Gesink arrives at the front of the leading group, the Movistar-guys realize that they can't shake the GC-leader off, and try it again. This time, Siutsou and Barredo are the ones.



But that attack is a pretty weak one, as the 2 get caught immediately. Next rider to attack is GC's 7th Robert Kiserlovski. The Croatian creates a gap of 11 seconds, when Cobo and Javier Moreno (GC's 5th) counter. Gesink still keeps on ascending in his own pace.



All get caught and the leading group still is very big, with 22 riders in it. Then with 8km to go, Cobo attacks again. Robert Gesink starts to get a bit irritated by these continuous atacks, and counters.



What Gesink expected also happens. Cobo has to stop his attack after a few hundreds of metres, not having the energy left after 2 earlier attacks. This is the time for Gesink to attack himself, and he leaves Cobo behind!



Within 2 kilometres, he creates a margin of 28 seconds to the chasing group. And apparantly, the Spanish riders have decided to cooperate, as Astarloza does the work in the chase, followed by Mosquera, Contador, Cobo and Moreno!



But even the Spanish armada can't beat the lone Dutch cyclist. Gesink increases his margin to the chasing Spaniards to '36, with only 2 kilometres to go. And these 2 are the steepest of the climb.



And it's stage win number 3 for Robert Gesink! He has saved enough energy for the last steep kilometre and stays out of reach. He has even increased the margin, as Juan José Cobo finishes in 2nd at '49, leading a 16-rider group.

1	Robert Gesink	Petronas - Monster Energy	4h35'21
2	Juan José Cobo	Dexia	+ 49
3	Javier Moreno	Caja Rural	s.t.
4	Ezequiel Mosquera	Caja Rural	s.t.
5	Valerio Agnoli	Lampre - Alitalia	s.t.
6	Alberto Contador	Movistar Team	s.t.
7	Thomas De Gendt	Radio Shack - Nissan	s.t.
8	Robert Kiserlovski	Pro Team Astana	s.t.
9	Rein Taaramäe	Sony Ericsson	s.t.
10	Juan Mauricio Soler	Colombia es Pasión - Café de Colombia	s.t.

1	Robert Gesink	Petronas - Monster Energy	42h08'22
2	Juan José Cobo	Dexia	+ 1'05
3	Carlos Barredo	Movistar Team	+ 1'44
4	Alberto Contador	Movistar Team	+ 2'37
5	Javier Moreno	Caja Rural	+ 5'20
6	Thomas De Gendt	Radio Shack - Nissan	+ 6'02
7	Robert Kiserlovski	Pro Team Astana	+ 6'12
8	Amets Txurruka	Andalucía - Catalunya	+ 7'55
9	Mikel Astarloza	Movistar Team	+ 8'35
10	Kanstantsin Siutsou	Movistar Team	+ 8'45

1	Robert Gesink	Petronas - Monster Energy	128
2	Juan José Cobo	Dexia	85
3	Alberto Contador	Movistar Team	75
4	Philippe Gilbert	Dexia	65
5	Robert Kiserlovski	Pro Team Astana	65

1	Robert Gesink	Petronas - Monster Energy	73
2	Gregory Bernard	Petronas - Monster Energy	71
3	Juan José Cobo	Dexia	59
4	Alberto Contador	Movistar Team	54
5	Carlos Barredo	Movistar Team	49

Gesink showed today who is the strongest rider here in the Vuelta. But I fear we'll get dozens of attacks in the following stages....

New GC for Gesink. It seems so easy for him right now! Just keep red!

Gesink... is Froome

This is a great stage, he waited patiently and then launched his missile, brilliant!

But he will be under attack again, a lot of times!