Well Mollema rides for Vacansoleil. Do you think that's a part of the success?

Stage 14: Astorga - La Farrapona



The weekend of mountains in Asturias starts with the hardest sequence of climbs in the whole Vuelta. The final 45 kilometers of the stage have the Alto de San Lorenzo and the Farrapona, two HC that should be a good test after yesterday hard stage towards Ponferrada. The climbers should have an edge today but considering the form that Mollema is showing the rest of the favorites will have to work hard.



Only three riders were brave enough to attempt a break today: Sergey Firsanov (Garmin), Vasili Kiryenka (Liquigas) and Daniel Martin (Lotto). The bunch gave them a big margin of 9' 15'' halfway through the stage, but they were already chasing at the first intermediate sprint in Pobladura de Luna.



Halfway through the climb to San Lorenzo (39 km to go) Discovery and Vacansoleil have reduced the gap of the break to 4' 30''. With the last 5 kilometers of the climb averaging more than 10% gradient they could be close to catching them at the top. As a result of the pace several riders are starting to suffer at the back of the pack.



David Lopez is determined to improve his placing in the mountain classification and he took valuable points in Ventana and San Lorenzo. Ahead of the bunch Daniel Martin left behind his break fellows but has only a gap of 1' 30''. Those last kilometers in the climb have hurt lots of riders and the riders are crossing the top of the climb in small groups with tiny differences among them.



The final climb to La Farrapona started with an attack from Tiago Machado. The Portuguese soon caught Daniel Martin in the lead of the stage. They have 30 seconds on a group of 21 but not all of the top riders were on it. David Lopez, Pieter Weening and Peter Stetina lost that break and are already losing quite a bit of time behind the favorites group.



Machado and Martin were soon reeled back in but soon after Denis Menchov launched a harder attack. With 13 kilometers remaining he had opened a gap of 30 seconds over the favorites group. The Russian attack is much more dangerous than Machado's and Mollema took the responsibility himself to chase. David Lopez is trying to progress behind, but he is still losing time.



Tejay van Garderen jumped behind Denis Menchov and most surprisingly Bauke Mollema couldn't follow the pace of the American even after trying hard to chase him down. Denis Menchov is still the leader of the stage with 7 kilometers remaining with Tejay 25 seconds behind, Nieve +35'' and the group of favorites +45''. David Lopez is already losing 2' 40'' and his chances of improving in the GC seem to vanish with every kilometer that goes by.



Van Garderen and Nieve were eventually reeled back into the group of favorites and this time Mollema could leave everyone else behind but Mikel Nieve. However, the stage win for Menchov seems closer with less than 4 kilometers remaining, as the Russian has 45'' on his chasers. The group of favorites is still close behind at 1' 00''.



Mollema's attack wasn't as hard as he has done recently but nevertheless he enters the last kilometer having dropped Nieve by a tiny margin. Menchov is set to win the stage but the differences among the other riders are going to be quite small considering how hard this stage was.



Denis Menchov wins in La Farrapona! The Russian comes back from the disappointment of losing time yesterday to being the first riders that takes time on Mollema in a mountain stage in the Vuelta. His chasers crossed the line one by one: Mollema 42 seconds behind, Nieve lost 1' 05'' and Hincapie 1' 22''. This results on Mikel Nieve leaving Van Garderen almost 1 minute behind in the GC and Denis Menchov again with options to be in the final podium in Madrid.

The losers of the day were David Lopez, who lost a massive 3' 30'' in the finish line but didn't lose any positions in the GC; Pieter Weening and Peter Stetina, who lost more than 7 minutes and say goodbye to the top 10 in the GC. The mountain tests continue tomorrow with the climb to the Angliru, surely a stage many riders want to win.

Today's Winner



Stage Results

1		Denis Menchov	OMEGA PHARMA-QUICKSTEP	5h22'10
2		Bauke Mollema	VACANSOLEIL-DMC	+ 42
3		Mikel Nieve	DISCOVERY CHANNEL	+ 1'05
4		George Hincapie	BMC RACING TEAM	+ 1'22
5		Fränk Schleck	TEAM RADIOSHACK-NISSAN	+ 1'34
6		Tejay Van Garderen	BMC RACING TEAM	s.t.
7		Hubert Dupont	RABOBANK	s.t.
8		Juan Jose Cobo	SKY PROCYCLING	+ 1'51
9		Joaquin Rodriguez	DISCOVERY CHANNEL	s.t.
10		Tiago Machado	SAXO BANK - TINKOFF	s.t.

General Classification

1		Bauke Mollema	VACANSOLEIL-DMC	60h17'13
2		Mikel Nieve	DISCOVERY CHANNEL	+ 7'11
3		Tejay Van Garderen	BMC RACING TEAM	+ 8'05
4		Denis Menchov	OMEGA PHARMA-QUICKSTEP	+ 9'52
5		George Hincapie	BMC RACING TEAM	+ 11'20
6		Hubert Dupont	RABOBANK	+ 12'18
7		David López	EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI	+ 15'00
8		Fränk Schleck	TEAM RADIOSHACK-NISSAN	+ 15'30
9		Jelle Vanendert	LOTTO-BELISOL	+ 16'12
10		Steven Kruijswijk	MOVISTAR TEAM	+ 17'08

Points

1		Bauke Mollema	VACANSOLEIL-DMC	175
2		Mikel Nieve	DISCOVERY CHANNEL	102
3		Denis Menchov	OMEGA PHARMA-QUICKSTEP	94
4		Ben Swift	SKY PROCYCLING	85
5		Tejay Van Garderen	BMC RACING TEAM	72

Mountain

1		Bauke Mollema	VACANSOLEIL-DMC	102
2		Mikel Nieve	DISCOVERY CHANNEL	82
3		Denis Menchov	OMEGA PHARMA-QUICKSTEP	63
4		David López	EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI	57
5		Sergey Firsanov	TEAM GARMIN - SHARP	53

Young

1		Thibaut Pinot	AG2R - LA MONDIALE	60h35'11
2		Thomas De Gendt	SKY PROCYCLING	+ 8'20
3		Robert Kiserlovski	LOTTO-BELISOL	+ 9'06
4		Emanuele Sella	ASTANA	+ 9'48
5		Davide Rebellin	MOVISTAR TEAM	+ 10'56

Teams

1		BMC RACING TEAM	180h43'38
2		VACANSOLEIL-DMC	+ 13'45
3		OMEGA PHARMA-QUICKSTEP	+ 16'35
4		DISCOVERY CHANNEL	+ 23'02
5		RABOBANK	+ 28'12

Mollema lost?!

I can't believe it myself.

Its going to take a massive effort for anyone to get near Mollema now

Another of the riders in the almighty Quickstep team is the character in the featured rider section today. Johan van Summeren has been one of the riders to improve dramatically in the last couple of seasons after learning how hard cycling can be in his first seasons in the World Tour. The Belgian joined the Quickstep team as soon as it became part of the World Tour, so this one makes 4 seasons already with the team for him.

The season that saw Van Summeren start to shine in the World Tour was 2011. In that year he showed that he could be a good cobbler by taking a top 10 in the Gent - Wevelgem. The highlight of the year would come in the Giro d'Italia, when he got his first stage win in the stage of the sterrato arriving in Orvieto.

2012 brought Johan van Summeren to the spotlight. A good top 10 in the Milano - Sanremo preceeded the biggest win in the career of any Belgian, the Ronde. Van Summeren was an outsider for the race, as the big favorite was Bjorn Leukemans. However, a puncture for Leukemans in the last kilometers left the race open amogn a small group and Van Summeren proved that he was the strongest and took a great solo win.

This year has been Van Summeren's confirmation as a stage winner in the Grand Tours (twice in the Giro) and he also won his first stage race, the Tour de Pologne. With his CV and his current form Van Summeren could well be among the winners of several monuments in the following years, especially in the cobbles. He has 2 more years in Quickstep so the team should be able to provide a good support for those races.

Best results:

Giro d'Italia	3 stages (2011, 13)
Ronde van Vlaanderen	1st (2012)
Paris - Roubaix	3rd (2013)
Milano - Sanremo	8th (2012)
Tour de Pologne	1st (2013), 2 stages (2013)
Clasica San Sebastian	7th (2012)
Gent - Wevelgem	8th (2011)
E3 Prijs - Vlaanderen	2nd (2013)

UCI World Tour Rankings:

- 2009 Team Garmin - Cervelo: 86th (2.89 pts)
- 2010 Quickstep: 86th (7.56 pts)
- 2011 Omega Pharma - Quickstep: 65th (33.44 pts)
- 2012 Omega Pharma - Quickstep: 39th (112.87 pts)

Van Summeren has definitely had some decent results

He sure has expaned his palmares

Stage 15: Aviles - Alto L'Angliru



The last big climb of the Vuelta will be one of the icons of the race, the Alto L'Anlgiru. The climb in Asturias is one of the toughest in the World, but the stage that precedes it is not so hard and not very long. The Tenebredo and the Cordal will be climbed before the final climb, but the fight among the top riders in the GC will probably take place in the final 10 kilometers of the stage.



A group of 10 riders was still ahead after the Tenebredo, including Fran Ventoso (Euskaltel), Wout Poels (Rabobank), Luis Leon Sanchez (Movistar), Julien Simon (Ag2r) and Lars Boom (Saxo Bank). With 52 kilometers remaining they had a gap of 5' 40'' on the main bunch, probably not enough for them to win at the top of the Angliru.



A group of three riders jumped from the bunch before the climb to El Cordal, Jean-Christophe Peraud, Pierre Rolland and Marco Pinotti. The Radioshack rider had a small gap over the other two halfway through the penultimate climb of the day and 1 minute on the peloton. Meanwhile, the break was steadily losing time against the bunch and a couple of riders couldn't keep up with the pace.



Joaquim Rodriguez (Discovery) led the climb of the peloton and his good pace was enough to be almost catching Peraud at the top. The break had gone past the top of the climb 2' 30'' before the bunch, a difference that was clearly not enough given the huge climb to the Angliru that they would be facing straight after the descent.



The first serious attack in the Angliru was performed by Frank Schleck with 9 kilometers to go. That made David Lopez and Hubert Dupont react and they opened a small gap on the peloton before the easier part of the climb. The break of the day was already about to be caught at that point.



The top riders in the GC responded well to the attacks and a group of 7 eventually came together as they head to the 5 kilometers banner. The top three of the GC, Bauke Mollema, Mikel Nieve and Tejay van Garderen, were in the group along with 2 riders that came from the break. The group of favorites was losing 1' 30'' at that point.



No one wanted to take the responsibility to make the pace in the front group and a rather big group came together with only 3 kilometers remaining. It is very weird for such a demanding climb and such high percentages. The fight for the stage is very open now but the gaps in the GC will be much smaller than what could be expected at the start of the stage.



Mikel Nieve attacked as the riders enter the last kilometer of the stage bringing Mollema with him. They have opened a small gap over the chasing Rinaldo Nocentini and Hubert Dupont. The presence of Nocentini around should let you know that the climb to the Angliru has not been as demanding as expected.



Mikel Nieve wins in L'Angliru! The Spaniard beats Mollema in the sprint and this makes it two consecutive stages not won by the Dutch. The leading duo prove that they are the strongest men in the race. 14 seconds behind them Tejay van Garderen led a group of 6 riders with Dupont and David Lopez completing the top 5.

Among the losers of the stage, Denis Menchov didn't have a good day and lost 1' 42'' after yesterday's win. That leaves the Russian too far away from the third place held by Van Garderen, especially considering the lack of hard stages remaining. The riders will enjoy the second rest day tomorrow ahead of a very easy stage ending in Logroño.

Today's Winner



Stage Results

1		Mikel Nieve	DISCOVERY CHANNEL	4h57'58
2		Bauke Mollema	VACANSOLEIL-DMC	s.t.
3		Tejay Van Garderen	BMC RACING TEAM	+ 14
4		Hubert Dupont	RABOBANK	s.t.
5		David López	EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI	s.t.
6		Rinaldo Nocentini	KATUSHA TEAM	s.t.
7		Jelle Vanendert	LOTTO-BELISOL	s.t.
8		Steven Kruijswijk	MOVISTAR TEAM	s.t.
9		Chris Froome	HTC - HIGH ROAD	+ 59
10		Tiago Machado	SAXO BANK - TINKOFF	+ 1'10

General Classification

1		Bauke Mollema	VACANSOLEIL-DMC	65h15'05
2		Mikel Nieve	DISCOVERY CHANNEL	+ 7'07
3		Tejay Van Garderen	BMC RACING TEAM	+ 8'21
4		Denis Menchov	OMEGA PHARMA-QUICKSTEP	+ 11'40
5		Hubert Dupont	RABOBANK	+ 12'38
6		George Hincapie	BMC RACING TEAM	+ 13'08
7		David López	EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI	+ 15'20
8		Jelle Vanendert	LOTTO-BELISOL	+ 16'32
9		Fränk Schleck	TEAM RADIOSHACK-NISSAN	+ 16'46
10		Steven Kruijswijk	MOVISTAR TEAM	+ 17'28

Points

1		Bauke Mollema	VACANSOLEIL-DMC	195
2		Mikel Nieve	DISCOVERY CHANNEL	127
3		Denis Menchov	OMEGA PHARMA-QUICKSTEP	94
4		Tejay Van Garderen	BMC RACING TEAM	88
5		Ben Swift	SKY PROCYCLING	85

Mountain

1		Bauke Mollema	VACANSOLEIL-DMC	122
2		Mikel Nieve	DISCOVERY CHANNEL	107
3		David López	EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI	69
4		Denis Menchov	OMEGA PHARMA-QUICKSTEP	63
5		Sergey Firsanov	TEAM GARMIN - SHARP	53

Young

1		Thibaut Pinot	AG2R - LA MONDIALE	65h34'19
2		Thomas De Gendt	SKY PROCYCLING	+ 8'52
3		Robert Kiserlovski	LOTTO-BELISOL	+ 9'38
4		Emanuele Sella	ASTANA	+ 10'20
5		Davide Rebellin	MOVISTAR TEAM	+ 11'28

Teams

1		BMC RACING TEAM	195h40'38
2		VACANSOLEIL-DMC	+ 15'27
3		OMEGA PHARMA-QUICKSTEP	+ 18'35
4		DISCOVERY CHANNEL	+ 22'48
5		RABOBANK	+ 28'12

Mollema loses 4 seconds

Stage 16: Villa Romana La Olmeda - Haro



The stage after the rest day is one of the easiest in the Vuelta. The route between La Olmeda and Haro does not have a single difficulty. The teams of the sprinters should have an easy time controlling the stage.



A big group of 11 riders formed the break of the day including Theo Bos (Rabobank), Yoann Offredo (Ag2r), Luca Paolini (Quickstep), Jurgen van den Broeck (Lotto), Chris Sutton (Garmin) and Michele Scarponi (Lampre). However, and even though they had 8' 30'' on the peloton halfway through the stage, their chances of making it to the finish line are slim.



Jurgen van den Broeck tried a desperate late attack from the break but was eventually reeled back in by the bunch with 16 kilometers remaining. The break made work the bunch hard during 70 kilometers but the mass sprint was the way to go today. Before that there is an intermediate sprint within the last 10 kilometers of the stage.



The sprinters are already forming their own sprint train as they are slightly ahead of the rest of the bunch after the intermediate sprint. Marcel Kittel took the points ahead of Yauheni Hutarovich and Ben Swift. Peter Sagan is the only top sprinter that seems to have lost a bit the track of the rest of the sprinters.



Marcel Kittel won the intermediate sprint a few kilometers ago and looks determined to win the stage as he leads the way as they go through the last kilometer. However, Ben Swift and Jose Joaquin Rojas are not thinking likewise and are chasing hard. Yauheni Hutarovich is now fourth but seems to be dropping back slightly.



Ben Swift wins in Haro! This is the sixth stage win for Ben Swift in the season, a remarkable achievement by what was a good sprinter at the beginning of the season and is developing as the reference in the World Tour. Marcel Kittel and Jose Joaquin Rojas fought hard for the stage win but in the end they could not get close to the British.

There was nothing else remarkable in this stage but the sprint, as the route didn't really provide with much excitement. Tomorrow will be a different day with the finish in Peña Cabarga, where the main riders in the GC will have to show their credentials again.

Today's Winner



Stage Results

1		Ben Swift	SKY PROCYCLING	5h11'53
2		Marcel Kittel	DISCOVERY CHANNEL	s.t.
3		José Joaquin Rojas	HTC - HIGH ROAD	s.t.
4		André Greipel	LOTTO-BELISOL	s.t.
5		Tyler Farrar	SAXO BANK - TINKOFF	s.t.
6		Alexandre Vinokourov	ASTANA	s.t.
7		Sacha Modolo	EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI	s.t.
8		Yauheni Hutarovich	LAMPRE - ISD	s.t.
9		Heinrich Haussler	DISCOVERY CHANNEL	s.t.
10		Elia Viviani	LAMPRE - ISD	s.t.

General Classification

1		Bauke Mollema	VACANSOLEIL-DMC	70h26'58
2		Mikel Nieve	DISCOVERY CHANNEL	+ 7'07
3		Tejay Van Garderen	BMC RACING TEAM	+ 8'21
4		Denis Menchov	OMEGA PHARMA-QUICKSTEP	+ 11'40
5		Hubert Dupont	RABOBANK	+ 12'38
6		George Hincapie	BMC RACING TEAM	+ 13'08
7		David López	EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI	+ 15'20
8		Jelle Vanendert	LOTTO-BELISOL	+ 16'32
9		Fränk Schleck	TEAM RADIOSHACK-NISSAN	+ 16'46
10		Steven Kruijswijk	MOVISTAR TEAM	+ 17'28

Points

1		Bauke Mollema	VACANSOLEIL-DMC	195
2		Mikel Nieve	DISCOVERY CHANNEL	127
3		Ben Swift	SKY PROCYCLING	111
4		Denis Menchov	OMEGA PHARMA-QUICKSTEP	94
5		Tejay Van Garderen	BMC RACING TEAM	88

Mountain

1		Bauke Mollema	VACANSOLEIL-DMC	122
2		Mikel Nieve	DISCOVERY CHANNEL	107
3		David López	EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI	69
4		Denis Menchov	OMEGA PHARMA-QUICKSTEP	63
5		Sergey Firsanov	TEAM GARMIN - SHARP	53

Young

1		Thibaut Pinot	AG2R - LA MONDIALE	70h46'12
2		Thomas De Gendt	SKY PROCYCLING	+ 8'52
3		Robert Kiserlovski	LOTTO-BELISOL	+ 9'38
4		Emanuele Sella	ASTANA	+ 10'20
5		Davide Rebellin	MOVISTAR TEAM	+ 11'28

Teams

1		BMC RACING TEAM	211h16'17
2		VACANSOLEIL-DMC	+ 15'27
3		OMEGA PHARMA-QUICKSTEP	+ 18'35
4		DISCOVERY CHANNEL	+ 22'48
5		RABOBANK	+ 28'12

Tyler Farrar has been on a big decline.

how many stages for Swift is that?

Go Swifty

Swift has already won twice in the Vuelta and 6 times during the season. That means he is the second riders with the most wins in the season, only behind Mollema.

Stage 17: Faustino V - Peña Cabarga



The seventeenth stage in the Vuelta a España takes the riders north to the surrounding of Santander for the last hill-top finish of the race. The stage towards Peña Cabarga is long but not too hard and a big group is expected to reach the bottom of the climb where the stage will be decided. The lack of toughness in the stage could open up the possible winners today.



8 riders were ahead halfway through the stage. Among those were Alessandro Ballan (BMC), Julien Simon (Ag2r), Daniel Martin (Lotto) and John Gadret (Euskaltel). They had a big gap of 9 minutes with 95 kilometers remaining, but Vacansoleil and Discovery were already chasing hard behind and that puts a big difficulty on their chances to reach the finish line ahead.



Another break attempt developed in the second climb of the day, the Portillo de Lunada. And attack from Cameron Meyer dragged Simon Gerrans, Oscar Freire and Andy Schleck behind. However, the group soon broke into pieces as Gerrans crossed the top of the mountain 15 seconds ahead of Meyer and 40 seconds ahead of the main bunch. The early break was still maintaining a healthy margin of 2' 30'' on the Australian ahead of the long descent.



Gerrans' adventure finished at the bottom of the descent as the bunch chased down Meyer and himself. The chasing of the break was quiet until the riders reached the road crossing towards Peña Cabarga (6 kilometers to go). Juanjo Cobo was the first man to attack and he started climbing with a small gap on the bunch, where the fighting for positioning was big. The early break was still ahead, but their margin had been reduced to less than 1 minute now.



The first serious attack in the main group was made by Thibaut Pinot, who dragged Steven Kruijswijk with him and joined Ryder Hesjedal with 4 kilometers remaining. At that point they had a gap of around 30 seconds on the group with the favorites, who was being paced by Janez Brajkovic. None of the top 5 riders had made a move yet.



Bauke Mollema jumped from the group halfway through the climb and only Mikel Nieve could follow him. They were together as they made their way into the final 2 kilometers in the stage, but the lead by Pinot and Kruijswijk was still 25 seconds on them. The group with the rest of the favorites was losing 55 seconds on the head of the race.



Thibaut Pinot was the first man to start the final sprint and he soon opened a small gap on Steven Kruijswijk. Mikel Nieve and Bauke Mollema were closing the gap but it looked like the stage win would be a matter of the two riders in front.



Thibaut Pinot wins in Peña Cabarga! The French, who is already on his way to winning the young jersey takes the stage win to complete a very good Vuelta a España for him. Pinot opened a gap of 7 seconds ahead of Mikel Nieve, Steven Kruijswijk and Bauke Mollema, while Frank Schleck and Tejay van Garderen lost 47 seconds in the end.

After that, a big number of small groups crossed the line and Denis Menchov was again one of the losers as he lost 2' 17'' and the fourth place in the GC. Worse than that was George Hincapie, who crossed the line 2' 35'' behind Pinot. Given that there are no big stages from now to the end of the Vuelta it already seems likely that the final podium will have Bauke Mollema on the top, surrounded by Mikel Nieve and Tejay van Garderen.

Today's Winner



Stage Results

1		Thibaut Pinot	AG2R - LA MONDIALE	5h53'12
2		Mikel Nieve	DISCOVERY CHANNEL	+ 7
3		Steven Kruijswijk	MOVISTAR TEAM	s.t.
4		Bauke Mollema	VACANSOLEIL-DMC	s.t.
5		Fränk Schleck	TEAM RADIOSHACK-NISSAN	+ 47
6		Tejay Van Garderen	BMC RACING TEAM	s.t.
7		Hubert Dupont	RABOBANK	+ 1'03
8		David López	EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI	+ 1'16
9		Davide Rebellin	MOVISTAR TEAM	+ 1'26
10		Robert Gesink	VACANSOLEIL-DMC	s.t.

General Classification

1		Bauke Mollema	VACANSOLEIL-DMC	76h20'17
2		Mikel Nieve	DISCOVERY CHANNEL	+ 7'01
3		Tejay Van Garderen	BMC RACING TEAM	+ 9'01
4		Hubert Dupont	RABOBANK	+ 13'34
5		Denis Menchov	OMEGA PHARMA-QUICKSTEP	+ 13'50
6		George Hincapie	BMC RACING TEAM	+ 15'36
7		David López	EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI	+ 16'29
8		Steven Kruijswijk	MOVISTAR TEAM	+ 17'24
9		Fränk Schleck	TEAM RADIOSHACK-NISSAN	+ 17'26
10		Jelle Vanendert	LOTTO-BELISOL	+ 18'23

Points

1		Bauke Mollema	VACANSOLEIL-DMC	209
2		Mikel Nieve	DISCOVERY CHANNEL	147
3		Ben Swift	SKY PROCYCLING	111
4		Tejay Van Garderen	BMC RACING TEAM	98
5		Denis Menchov	OMEGA PHARMA-QUICKSTEP	94

Mountain

1		Bauke Mollema	VACANSOLEIL-DMC	136
2		Mikel Nieve	DISCOVERY CHANNEL	127
3		David López	EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI	75
4		Denis Menchov	OMEGA PHARMA-QUICKSTEP	63
5		Tejay Van Garderen	BMC RACING TEAM	58

Young

1		Thibaut Pinot	AG2R - LA MONDIALE	76h39'14
2		Thomas De Gendt	SKY PROCYCLING	+ 13'02
3		Davide Rebellin	MOVISTAR TEAM	+ 13'04
4		Robert Kiserlovski	LOTTO-BELISOL	+ 13'18
5		Emanuele Sella	ASTANA	+ 14'00

Teams

1		BMC RACING TEAM	229h01'50
2		VACANSOLEIL-DMC	+ 13'01
3		OMEGA PHARMA-QUICKSTEP	+ 18'19
4		DISCOVERY CHANNEL	+ 22'08
5		RABOBANK	+ 28'28

Wait, Mollema didn't win that stage?

Nieve is trying his best but its not good enough at the moment

still no one touching Mollema

Stage 18: Solares - Noja



Either a break of riders that have lost time in the GC or a sprint of a reduced group seem to be the most possible outcomes of the eighteenth stage of the Vuelta. The riders will travel around the inner part of the province of Cantabria, where they will have to overcome 5 categorized climbs before the finish line in Noja.



The break members were not bad today, as the group of 9 had some good names like: Luca Paolini (Quickstep), Theo Bos (Rabobank), Maxime Monfort and Sylvain Chavanel (Ag2r) and Chris Sutton (Garmin). At the second climb of the day, the Alto del Caracol, they had 6' 30'' on a main bunch that was taking things easy.



HTC was in charge of chasing the break during the climb to Alisas, 60 kilometers from the finish line. Jose Joaquin Rojas is one of the sprinters that handles the hills best and he can probably take something out of today's stage. The pace by Leipheimer and Kocjan is making the break lose terrain and the gap has been reduced to 3' 20''.



The break broke into pieces in the last climb (Fuente las Varas) and only Samuel Dumolin, Sylvain Chavanel and Maxime Monfort reached the top together. However, the bunch was already closing in and the gap had been reduced to 30 seconds. It looks like the break is not going to make it and the sprint will be the way to go today.



With the break brought back into the main bunch the teams with sprinters started preparing the final sprint. Lotto had Jurgen Roelandts working for Andre Greipel, Euskaltel had Romain Feillu towing Sacha Modolo and HTC had Jure Kocjan ahead of Jose Joaquin Rojas. It was surprising not to see Peter Sagan around, as he should be one of the sprinters with good chances today.



But the mass sprint was totally messed up when a crash by Elia Viviani, who was very much in front, meant that as many as 40 riders hit the ground in the bunch. That happened with less than 3 kilometers remaining and some big names like Mikel Nieve (2nd in the GC), Jelle Vanendert (10th in the GC), Robert Gesink and Samuel Sanchez were involved.



Bauke Mollema was the luckiest in the front part of the peloton and as the sprint started enjoyed a nice gap over his chasers. Behind him David Lopez was also lucky and the sprinters are trying to regain positions led by Sacha Modolo and Marcel Kittel.



Bauke Mollema wins in Noja! The Dutch takes yet another win in the Vuelta but this time was more down to luck than to his ability sprinting. The stage was marked by the crash and that handed the win to Mollema. Behind him arrived David Lopez, who was close to Mollema at the time of the crash. The best sprinters had to settle for the next positions and Rojas took the third place ahead of Hutarovich and Vinokourov.

As the crash happened in the last 3 kilometers no time differences were awarded, but that didn't mean everyone was happy with the result. Saxo Bank lost Michael Rogers and Rui Costa, the team that had the worst part in the crash. The riders will head now to the Basque Country, where two hilly stages await.

Today's Winner



Stage Results

1		Bauke Mollema	VACANSOLEIL-DMC	5h16'00
2		David López	EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI	s.t.
3		José Joaquin Rojas	HTC - HIGH ROAD	s.t.
4		Yauheni Hutarovich	LAMPRE - ISD	s.t.
5		Alexandre Vinokourov	ASTANA	s.t.
6		Ben Swift	SKY PROCYCLING	s.t.
7		Sacha Modolo	EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI	s.t.
8		Cameron Meyer	OMEGA PHARMA-QUICKSTEP	s.t.
9		Marcel Kittel	DISCOVERY CHANNEL	s.t.
10		Hubert Dupont	RABOBANK	s.t.

General Classification

1		Bauke Mollema	VACANSOLEIL-DMC	81h36'07
2		Mikel Nieve	DISCOVERY CHANNEL	+ 7'11
3		Tejay Van Garderen	BMC RACING TEAM	+ 9'11
4		Hubert Dupont	RABOBANK	+ 13'44
5		Denis Menchov	OMEGA PHARMA-QUICKSTEP	+ 14'00
6		George Hincapie	BMC RACING TEAM	+ 15'46
7		David López	EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI	+ 16'33
8		Steven Kruijswijk	MOVISTAR TEAM	+ 17'34
9		Fränk Schleck	TEAM RADIOSHACK-NISSAN	+ 17'36
10		Jelle Vanendert	LOTTO-BELISOL	+ 18'33

Points

1		Bauke Mollema	VACANSOLEIL-DMC	234
2		Mikel Nieve	DISCOVERY CHANNEL	147
3		Ben Swift	SKY PROCYCLING	121
4		José Joaquin Rojas	HTC - HIGH ROAD	101
5		Tejay Van Garderen	BMC RACING TEAM	98

Mountain

1		Bauke Mollema	VACANSOLEIL-DMC	136
2		Mikel Nieve	DISCOVERY CHANNEL	127
3		David López	EUSKALTEL - EUSKADI	76
4		Denis Menchov	OMEGA PHARMA-QUICKSTEP	63
5		Tejay Van Garderen	BMC RACING TEAM	58

Young

1		Thibaut Pinot	AG2R - LA MONDIALE	81h55'14
2		Thomas De Gendt	SKY PROCYCLING	+ 13'02
3		Davide Rebellin	MOVISTAR TEAM	+ 13'04
4		Robert Kiserlovski	LOTTO-BELISOL	+ 13'18
5		Emanuele Sella	ASTANA	+ 14'00

Teams

1		BMC RACING TEAM	244h49'50
2		VACANSOLEIL-DMC	+ 13'01
3		OMEGA PHARMA-QUICKSTEP	+ 18'19
4		DISCOVERY CHANNEL	+ 22'08
5		RABOBANK	+ 28'28