Great start for Lotto

So we have 1 vote for Ten Dam and 1 vote for Lopez to win the Vuelta. Any other guesses?

I guess Lopez would be my prediction.

I'm feeling an outsider to win

The start of the Vuelta was used by a new team to be presented. Dimension Data will join the ranks from 2017 as a Pro Continental team. It is the first African team in the World so it has been given a warm welcome by all the other teams.

Also, among the youngsters that will join some of the teams from next season a few names have been filtered out. They are:

Mikel Landa
Tiesj Benoot
Edward Theuns
Fabio Felline
Matteo Trentin

Stage 2: Pamplona - Viana



The 2nd stage of the Vuelta is classified as flat but it has more to it that a pure mass sprint. That is the most likely option but given the up and down of small hills during the whole stage either a break or a late attack might have a chance of succeeding. The final kilometers will be raced in a circuit in the surroundings of Viana. It comprises 2 laps to a 14 kilometers long loop. The KoM and points' jerseys have not been awarded yet and today will be the first day to do it.



The break of the day took a long time to be formed. Even the first intermediate sprint was contended by the bunch as a whole. There were 5 riders that managed to break free of the claws of the peloton: Lars Boom (Giant), Warren Barguil (IAM), Stefan Schumacher (HTC), Simon Gerrans (Trek) and Guillaume van Keirsbulck (Sky). The only KoM sprint of the day was in the Alto de la Chapela, 100 kilometers from the finish line. Stefan Schumacher took the 1st place at the top and will be the first leader of the classification.



The second intermediate sprint was placed in Estella, 65 kilometers from the finish line in Viana. Tyler Farrar had narrowly won the first sprint but this time it was the time for Marcel Kittel to easily beat Mark Renshaw and Fran Ventoso. The peloton was chasing hard and the gap to the break had come down already to 3 minutes. Lotto and Astana were the teams that started to do so earlier. The stage was a bit more difficult than what the profile suggests and many riders could have trouble.



The early break was reeled back in soon after entering the final circuit in Viana. With 21 kilometers and a bit more than 2 laps to go it seemed a bit on the early side to catch them. This circuit had a small hill with about 7 kilometers to go hard enough to make some of the sprinters suffer. Lotto was the first team to chase but in the latter part of the stage it was down to Astana and LottoNL to do the chasing and to reel back the break.



Davide Rebellin was leading the group at the 3 kilometers mark but Astana had to control a couple of surprise attacks by Laurens Ten Dam and Bauke Mollema. The Kazakh team was the only team that built a sprint train with Grega Bole ready to lead Marcel Kittel. Kenny van Hummel was quick to grab the wheel of the German while other sprinters like Juan Jose Haedo, Tyler Farrar and Jurgen Roelandts were well positioned. It would also be a good stage for Simone Ponzi and Michael Matthews to try to grab a stage win.



Marcel Kittel started the sprint way too early as before the flame rouge he had already launched the final rush. He managed to leave everyone behind except for Kenny van Hummel, who was enjoying a perfect lead-out. It was also surprising that Tejay van Garderen joined the final sprint. The American had a bad experience with a crash in the last Tour de France. Meanwhile, Tyler Farrar and Mark Cavendish were gaining positions but they seemed to be too far back.



Kenny van Hummel easily got past a quickly fading Marcel Kittel and with 600 meters to go he looked good for the stage win. Tyler Farrar was the rider that was making the most progress among the rest of the sprinters followed by Michael Matthews. However, Tejay van Garderen was still in the mix even though he is not a sprinter at all and he started from far out. The rest of the sprinters seemed too far back although Jose Joaquin Rojas was making progress as well.



Kenny van Hummel wins in Viana! The Dutch had no rival today and easily got the stage win in the first long stage of the Vuelta a España. Van Hummel is proving to be in good shape after he won a stage in the Tour de Pologne. This is his 4th of the season. Tyler Farrar narrowly got the 2nd place ahead of a fast finishing Jose Joaquin Rojas, who weirdly was not helped by Juan Jose Haedo. The top 5 was completed by Jurgen Roelandts and Mark Renshaw.

The stage was a bit more difficult than expected and many sprinters did not have the legs when it came to the last kilometers of the stage. Their chances of getting another mass sprint will be a few stages away. Tomorrow the candidates for the overall GC have to start playing their cards as the race finishes at the top of Arrate. Among the few riders that lost time today was Rafal Majka, the former leader of the young classification.

Today's Winner



Stage Results

1		Kenny Van Hummel	Team LottoNL - Jumbo	4h11'15
2		Tyler Farrar	Tinkoff - Saxo	s.t.
3		José Joaquín Rojas	Movistar Team	s.t.
4		Jürgen Roelandts	Team Sky	s.t.
5		Mark Renshaw	Discovery Channel	s.t.
6		Fränk Schleck	Etixx - Quick·Step	s.t.
7		Michael Matthews	Lotto - Soudal	s.t.
8		Cadel Evans	Movistar Team	s.t.
9		Juan José Cobo	HTC - Highroad	s.t.
10		Marcel Kittel	Astana Pro Team	s.t.

General Classification

1		Michael Matthews	Lotto - Soudal	4h32'20
2		Jelle Vanendert	Lotto - Soudal	s.t.
3		George Hincapie	Lotto - Soudal	s.t.
4		Tony Martin	Lotto - Soudal	s.t.
5		Fränk Schleck	Etixx - Quick·Step	+ 4
6		Björn Leukemans	Lotto - Soudal	s.t.
7		Tejay Van Garderen	Trek Factory Racing	s.t.
8		Michael Rogers	Trek Factory Racing	s.t.
9		Denis Galimzyanov	Trek Factory Racing	s.t.
10		Maarten Tjallingii	Etixx - Quick·Step	s.t.

Points

1		Kenny Van Hummel	Team LottoNL - Jumbo	53
2		Tyler Farrar	Tinkoff - Saxo	47
3		José Joaquín Rojas	Movistar Team	31
4		Michael Matthews	Lotto - Soudal	27
5		Mark Renshaw	Discovery Channel	26

Mountain

1		Stefan Schumacher	HTC - Highroad	6
2		Simon Gerrans	Trek Factory Racing	4
3		Lars Boom	Team Giant - Alpecin	2
4		Warren Barguil	IAM Cycling	1

Young

1		Jens Debusschere	Etixx - Quick·Step	4h32'24
2		Adriano Malori	Trek Factory Racing	+ 1
3		Simon Geschke	Team Giant - Alpecin	+ 8
4		Tanel Kangert	HTC - Highroad	+ 9
5		Kenny Dehaes	Discovery Channel	s.t.

Teams

1		Lotto - Soudal	12h54'50
2		Trek Factory Racing	+ 4
3		Etixx - Quick·Step	s.t.
4		Team Giant - Alpecin	+ 12
5		Discovery Channel	+ 13

Great win from Kenny

There was a point I thought Farrar had a chance.

Nice win, Van Hummel look good, interesting if he will be strong enough when the finish will be less hard.

KENNY VAN HUMMEL

Stage 3: Faustino V - Arrate



It is never too early to start sorting out between the candidates to the overall win and the rest of the riders in a Grand Tour. The Vuelta has therefore programmed a hilly stage in the 3rd day of competition that will take the riders to the top of the Santuario de Arrate, close to Eibar. The stage is not overly hard but the riders will tackle the climb to Kanpazar first, which should filter a little bit the race before heading to the final climb. Arrate is not too long but its average gradient is above 8%.



There was much fighting to get into the break of the day as many teams thought they would have a better chance in the stage by putting riders in it. However, Lotto was willing to control the size of the group and chased down many attempts. In the end a group of 5 consolidated the break at the Puerto de Bernedo, 119 kilometers from the finish line. They were Simon Spilak (Tinkoff), Tom Danielson (LottoNL), Grega Bole (Astana), Lars Petter Nordhaug (Ag2r) and Pablo Lastras (Movistar). Lotto was a little overwhelmed trying to control the race but found help at some point from Sky and HTC.



Michael Matthews was the only rider to sprint in the bunch for the remaining points in the intermediate sprint in Vitoria, 75 kilometers from the finish line. Lotto was already working to chase down the break and the gap, at 3' 30'', had already started to come down from its maximum. The Belgian team was a bit too fast to chase down the break yesterday and they could make the same mistake again today. The terrain would allow other riders to break if the front group is caught very fast so it might not be such a good idea.



The climb to Kanpazar was only 33 kilometers from the finish line in Arrate. Ben Hermans attacked almost at the top of the climb followed by Joost van Leijen and Andy Schleck. However, Lotto had put Robert Kiserlovski, who was in the podium in the Giro d'Italia, to set the pace. He was not letting anyone get any kind of gap. The climb was quite fast and that meant that they were already about to catch back the early break. Meanwhile, Michael Matthews was holding on quite nicely at the group.



Andy Schleck opened a gap in the descent of Kanpazar but was subsequently caught back along with the early break. There were a few attacks in the run towards Arrate and Jurgen van den Broeck managed to open a small gap at the front at the hill preceding the final climb. With 14 kilometers to go he had 10 seconds on a group formed by Ben Hermans, Rob Ruijgh and Mathias Frank and 25 seconds on the bunch. Lotto was still working hard with Bjorn Leukemans, Rafal Majka and George Hincapie at the front.



The climb to Arrate started with 7 kilometers to go and Laurens Ten Dam attacked straight away. The Dutch did not have any time to lose and dragged Robert Gesink and Cadel Evans among others with him. At the 6 km mark they had caught up with the head of the race to form a group of 8 riders. They had 30 seconds over the main bunch, where Danilo di Luca was doing the chase for Euskaltel with a few Quickstep riders positioned very close to the front. The climb to Arrate was not too long so the favorites cannot leave the attacking for too late in the stage.



Ten Dam's group was brought back by Danilo di Luca but that moment was used by Tejay van Garderen to attack from the group of the favorites. The American, winner of the Tour de France in 2014, quickly opened a gap that grew to 20 seconds with 3 kilometers to go. Rob Ruijgh tried to go with him but could not keep the pace. Meanwhile, Cadel Evans was setting the pace in the group but even Michael Matthews was still holding on to it. Many of the favorites seem to be just waiting today as we were only 1 kilometer from the top.



Jelle Vanendert attacked with 700 meters to go to the top of the climb but could not leave anyone behind. The subsequent increase in pace by David Lopez reduced his group to only 11 riders. They crossed the top of the climb 15 seconds behind Van Garderen. Among those left behind were Juanjo Cobo and Marco Pinotti, 55 seconds behind. Further back the road was another group with the leader and Bauke Mollema in it, 1' 40'' behind Tejay. We would not know who the winner of the Vuelta today but it was increasingly likely that some of the favorites would not be in the mix.



The final kilometer of the stage was downhill towards the chapel at the top of Arrate. This meant that Tejay van Garderen was set to take the stage win. It has not been an easy year for the American so far and this will be a very welcome win. Meanwhile, David Lopez was leading the chase 15 seconds behind ahead of Frank Schleck, Jelle Vanendert and Peter Stetina. A few others had dropped from the group of favorites that went through the top of the climb to Arrate in the flat at the top, proving that many had had trouble keeping the wheels of the strongest.



Tejay van Garderen wins in Arrate! It did not look like this was the stage that was best suited to the abilities of Tejay van Garderen but the American has surprised the favorites and taken his 2nd stage win of the season. In a season of disappointments for him he might want to come back to the spotlight by taking a step forward in the Vuelta. David Lopez was the best among the rest and crossed the line 8 seconds behind. Euskaltel had been really keen to grab the win at the Basque Country but he reacted too late to the attacks.

Jelle Vanendert and Frank Schleck lost 16 seconds to Van Garderen while another group crossed the line 27 seconds behind led by Peter Stetina. As we said, it was not a day to win the Vuelta but not to lose it. Bauke Mollema was probably the negative surprise of the day as he lost 2 minutes at the finish line. Vacansoleil's performance was quite poor as Andy Schleck was very insistent in trying to go for the stage but did not have the legs to open a gap.

Today's Winner



Stage Results

1		Tejay Van Garderen	Trek Factory Racing	3h55'06
2		David López	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 8
3		Jelle Vanendert	Lotto - Soudal	+ 16
4		Fränk Schleck	Etixx - Quick·Step	s.t.
5		Peter Stetina	BMC Racing Team	+ 27
6		Jérôme Coppel	IAM Cycling	s.t.
7		Robert Gesink	AG2R La Mondiale	s.t.
8		Cadel Evans	Movistar Team	s.t.
9		Laurens Ten Dam	Team Cannondale - Garmin	s.t.
10		Chris Froome	Team Sky	s.t.

General Classification

1		Tejay Van Garderen	Trek Factory Racing	8h27'25
2		Jelle Vanendert	Lotto - Soudal	+ 16
3		Fränk Schleck	Etixx - Quick·Step	+ 21
4		David López	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 27
5		Peter Stetina	BMC Racing Team	+ 42
6		Jérôme Coppel	IAM Cycling	s.t.
7		Laurens Ten Dam	Team Cannondale - Garmin	s.t.
8		Cadel Evans	Movistar Team	+ 44
9		Mikel Nieve	Discovery Channel	+ 46
10		Chris Froome	Team Sky	s.t.

Points

1		Kenny Van Hummel	Team LottoNL - Jumbo	53
2		Tyler Farrar	Tinkoff - Saxo	47
3		Fränk Schleck	Etixx - Quick·Step	46
4		Tejay Van Garderen	Trek Factory Racing	45
5		Michael Matthews	Lotto - Soudal	37

Mountain

1		Tejay Van Garderen	Trek Factory Racing	16
2		David López	Euskaltel - Euskadi	12
3		Tom Danielson	Team LottoNL - Jumbo	12
4		Jelle Vanendert	Lotto - Soudal	10
5		Fränk Schleck	Etixx - Quick·Step	8

Young

1		Tanel Kangert	HTC - Highroad	8h31'48
2		Ruben Plaza	Discovery Channel	+ 12
3		Damiano Caruso	Team Cannondale - Garmin	+ 13
4		John Atapuma	Team Sky	+ 1'33
5		Jens Debusschere	Etixx - Quick·Step	+ 3'56

Teams

1		HTC - Highroad	24h43'28
2		Etixx - Quick·Step	+ 17
3		BMC Racing Team	+ 29
4		Trek Factory Racing	+ 50
5		Lotto - Soudal	+ 1'02

Lopez already making his challenge on the GC

Yes he sure does

Stage 4: Barakaldo - Estacion de Valdezcaray



The fourth stage will feature another mountain-top finish, this time at the sky resort of Valdezcaray. The stage is rather straight-forward with only the difficulty of the tough Puerto de Orduña 100 kilometers from the finish line. The stage will be decided at the slopes of Valdezcaray, a climb that is not too tough and where differences are difficult to make. The climb itself is 11 kilometers long with a gradient of 6.3%. Nevertheless, these opening stages of the Vuelta will help clarify who are the riders that came with an intention of taking the overall classification in Madrid.



The Puerto de Orduña was tackled with 100 kilometers to go, which made the climb less relevant than what it could have been. A group of 8 riders had opened a gap with the bunch, including Thibaut Pinot (Discovery), Tanel Kangert (HTC), Davide Rebellin (Astana), Anthony Roux (IAM) and Vasil Kiryienka (Tinkoff). They had a gap of 4' 45'' at the top of the climb over a bunch that was not too worried about the break. Kiryienka was the fastest at the top as most of the riders in the break fought for the KoM points.



Way before the start of the final climb we had one of the dumbest moves of the year. Frank Schleck decided to attack in the flat with 50 kilometers to go and try to bridge the gap to the break. However, at the intermediate sprint in Santo Domingo de la Calzada, 28 kilometers to go, he still had not caught up and was using a lot of energy in a terrain that does not really suit him. He was 40 seconds behind, while the bunch led by HTC, Cannondale and IAM was 1' 20'' behind the leaders. Davide Rebellin easily collected all the points on offer in both of today's sprints.



The final climb started with 11 kilometers to go and Frank Schleck had been caught long before. Cadel Evans also tried to bridge the gap to the break and his teammate Stefano Garzelli waited for him to lend him a hand. Vasil Kiryienka and Anthony Roux started the final climb with a gap of 15 seconds over Evans' group, which also included Thibaut Pinot and Tanel Kangert. The main bunch was already at full speed with BMC leading the chase. The gap had been cut to 30 seconds only at the start of the climb.



Oliver Zaugg and Kanstantsin Siutsou were leading the bunch with 8 kilometers to go for Cannondale and BMC respectively. Only Cadel Evans and Vasil Kiryienka were still ahead with a gap of around 25 seconds. The climb to Valdezcaray is one that can be done comfortably following the wheels of other riders in the bunch so a few of the favorites might happily sit in the bunch today. Around 80 riders were holding on in the bunch while David Lopez was sitting very close to the front of the group.



Cadel Evans was eventually reeled back in as Tejay van Garderen attacked. However, it was Frank Schleck who managed to go solo and with 5 kilometers to go he had a gap of 15 seconds over Jelle Vanendert, 25 over Levi Leipheimer and 35 over the group of the favorites. It seems that Schleck was feeling really good today as he could still open a gap after wasting a lot of energy in the flat before the final climb. Ag2r tried to control the race with Jose Serpa in the group working for Robert Gesink while a few of the favorites seem happy to let the day go by.



Peter Stetina attacked with 4 kilometers to go but he only managed to get the group of the favorites thinner. It was then the turn of David Lopez, who waited a lot to try to close the gap to Frank Schleck and Jelle Vanendert. They still had 25 seconds over the group of the leader, which might be enough to get the stage win. Meanwhile, among those dropped were Jean-Christophe Peraud and Denis Menchov. Both were losing 1' 25'' and would drop further back in the GC after today.



David Lopez managed to get to the front of the race under the flame rouge. The Spaniard was strong enough to bridge the gap but it is doubtful that he would have energy to fight for the stage win. Jelle Vanendert was leading the way in the group of 3 with 700 meters to go. Meanwhile, the group of the leader is already losing 30 seconds as Peter Stetina is setting the pace followed by Tejay van Garderen and Robert Kiserlovski.



Jelle Vanendert wins in Valdezcaray! The Belgian managed the climb perfectly and knew what attack to follow to minimize the effort to be at the front of the race. That is the 4th win for Vanendert this season, of course none as important as the Liege - Bastogne - Liege. David Lopez crossed the finish line 9 seconds behind, while Frank Schleck lost 21 seconds to the winner of the stage. Schleck will take two lessons from today: not to spend energy in battles he can't win but also that he will be in the mix for the overall if he keeps his form.

Tejay van Garderen led his group and took 4th ahead of Robert Kiserlovski. However, the 47 seconds they lost means that Jelle Vanendert will be the new leader of the race. The gaps are already starting to appear at the front of the GC very early on the race even though the stages that have been raced so far are not that difficult. The climbers will now have a respite until the race hits Andorra for a mountain-top finish at the Col de la Gallina.

Today's Winner



Stage Results

1		Jelle Vanendert	Lotto - Soudal	4h06'33
2		David López	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 9
3		Fränk Schleck	Etixx - Quick·Step	+ 21
4		Tejay Van Garderen	Trek Factory Racing	+ 47
5		Robert Kiserlovski	Lotto - Soudal	s.t.
6		Peter Stetina	BMC Racing Team	s.t.
7		Robert Gesink	AG2R La Mondiale	s.t.
8		Jérôme Coppel	IAM Cycling	s.t.
9		Marco Pinotti	Etixx - Quick·Step	s.t.
10		Bauke Mollema	Vacansoleil - DCM	s.t.

General Classification

1		Jelle Vanendert	Lotto - Soudal	12h34'09
2		David López	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 22
3		Fränk Schleck	Etixx - Quick·Step	+ 30
4		Tejay Van Garderen	Trek Factory Racing	+ 36
5		Peter Stetina	BMC Racing Team	+ 1'18
6		Jérôme Coppel	IAM Cycling	s.t.
7		Laurens Ten Dam	Team Cannondale - Garmin	s.t.
8		Cadel Evans	Movistar Team	+ 1'20
9		Mikel Nieve	Discovery Channel	+ 1'22
10		Chris Froome	Team Sky	s.t.

Points

1		Fränk Schleck	Etixx - Quick·Step	63
2		Tejay Van Garderen	Trek Factory Racing	58
3		Kenny Van Hummel	Team LottoNL - Jumbo	53
4		David López	Euskaltel - Euskadi	52
5		Jelle Vanendert	Lotto - Soudal	50

Mountain

1		Jelle Vanendert	Lotto - Soudal	26
2		Tejay Van Garderen	Trek Factory Racing	24
3		David López	Euskaltel - Euskadi	24
4		Fränk Schleck	Etixx - Quick·Step	18
5		Vasil Kiryienka	Tinkoff - Saxo	16

Young

1		Tanel Kangert	HTC - Highroad	12h40'46
2		Damiano Caruso	Team Cannondale - Garmin	+ 2'33
3		Silvan Dillier	BMC Racing Team	+ 6'29
4		Rafal Majka	Lotto - Soudal	+ 6'57
5		Bryan Coquard	FDJ	+ 9'13

Teams

1		BMC Racing Team	37h06'50
2		Etixx - Quick·Step	+ 7
3		HTC - Highroad	+ 13
4		AG2R La Mondiale	+ 1'49
5		Team Cannondale - Garmin	+ 1'51

Great day in the saddle for Lopez

It is all very open, Tejay van Garderen took a chance today and failed, but he will be back
But where is TEN DAM

Stage 5: Logroño - Logroño



There is a respite today for the GC men. The 5th stage will be raced in a circuit in the surroundings of Logroño. There will be 4 laps to a circuit of around 48 kilometers that has a couple of hills. However, they should not be hard enough to upset the mass sprint that is expected. The final 20 kilometers of the stage will be very straight-forward for the main bunch and the race should be completely controlled. The sprinters will not have that many opportunities in this Vuelta so they better take advantage of them.



It was not a big group that made it to the break of the day. Only 4 riders formed it: Taylor Phinney (Discovery), Tom Slagter (Cannondale), Yannick Martinez (Orica) and Thor Hushovd (FDJ). At the second passage through the finish line, where the first intermediate sprint was placed, they had a gap of 6' 30'' on the main bunch. In the main bunch it was Kenny van Hummel who was quickest ahead of Tyler Farrar and Marcel Kittel. The peloton did not look worried at all about the break as the riders at the front did not pose much of a threat.



The second intermediate sprint was at the last passage of the finish line, with 44 kilometers to go. Marcel Kittel was the fastest man in the bunch this time. He beat Kenny van Hummel and Tyler Farrar. Frank Schleck was going to lose the points' jersey today but he did not expect otherwise. With a gap of 3' 15'' and a whole lap still to go the fate of the break seemed to be determined to be caught back. It had been a very quiet day for the favorites on the GC so far and it did not look like changing.



The break was virtually caught with 11 kilometers to go and in fact Tom Slagter had already dropped from the group and back in the bunch. They only had 20 seconds of advantage. Astana had as many as 5 riders leading the way and found the collaboration of LottoNL at the front as well. The last lap was not as comfortable as the previous ones and Mark Cavendish and Chris Sutton were caught in a group that lost contact with the rest of the bunch. The gap grew fast and they did not look like coming back in the bunch.



LottoNL and Astana managed to set up sprint trains but with 3 kilometers to go Rob Ruijgh was the only rider left to lead out Kenny van Hummel. Jose Joaquin Rojas had taken the wheel of the Dutch but it was strange for LottoNL to set up a train as Van Hummel is normally a good sprinter that does not need a train. On the other hand, Astana had Grega Bole to lead out Marcel Kittel, while Joost van Leijen was right behind. Among the rest of the sprinters, those that were close to the front were Fran Ventoso, Simone Ponzi and Mark Renshaw.



It was not a big surprise when LottoNL's train fell apart with more than 1 kilometer to go. Kenny van Hummel had to try to follow others but Astana had timed his train perfectly and Grega Bole was solidly taking Marcel Kittel to a perfect position. Furthermore, Joost van Leijen was right behind the German and the Giant rider is not a particularly fast sprinter. Among the rest, Tyler Farrar was nowhere to be seen which was strange as he was having good performances so far.



Grega Bole did a massive lead out but with 600 meters to go he was still leading the way and Marcel Kittel was still hiding behind his teammate. However, the German could afford to wait as the rest of the sprinters seemed to be far behind and Joost van Leijen was only starting his final sprint at that point. The only concern for him would be whether he would spend too much time accelerating. Among those trying to close the gap the closest ones were Mark Renshaw and Kenny van Hummel.



Joost van Leijen wins in Logroño! This is an absolute surprise. Van Leijen is by no means a good sprinter but more of a puncheur and he managed to beat some of the best sprinters out there in a flat stage. The Astana team did a great lead out for him and he capitalised grabbing his 2nd win of the season. Nevertheless, the sprint was a very narrow one and Mark Renshaw was very close to snatching the win from him. Fran Ventoso was third ahead of Kenny van Hummel.

It is worth noting how bad the sprint by Marcel Kittel was as he could only manage a 5th final position after his teammates did an outstanding job to set the sprint up for him. The efforts in the intermediate sprints might have been an issue as Tyler Farrar also disappeared from the top places today. Tomorrow there will be a stage for the puncheurs as the stage finishes at the top of the Fuerte de Rapitan in Jaca. Some of the GC favorites might even try to grab a few seconds.

Today's Winner



Stage Results

1		Joost Van Leijen	Team Giant - Alpecin	4h38'50
2		Mark Renshaw	Discovery Channel	s.t.
3		Francisco José Ventoso	Euskaltel - Euskadi	s.t.
4		Kenny Van Hummel	Team LottoNL - Jumbo	s.t.
5		Marcel Kittel	Astana Pro Team	s.t.
6		Michael Matthews	Lotto - Soudal	s.t.
7		José Joaquín Rojas	Movistar Team	s.t.
8		Tony Gallopin	BMC Racing Team	s.t.
9		Simone Ponzi	Team Katusha	s.t.
10		Grega Bole	Astana Pro Team	s.t.

General Classification

1		Jelle Vanendert	Lotto - Soudal	17h12'59
2		David López	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 22
3		Fränk Schleck	Etixx - Quick·Step	+ 30
4		Tejay Van Garderen	Trek Factory Racing	+ 36
5		Peter Stetina	BMC Racing Team	+ 1'18
6		Jérôme Coppel	IAM Cycling	s.t.
7		Laurens Ten Dam	Team Cannondale - Garmin	s.t.
8		Cadel Evans	Movistar Team	+ 1'20
9		Mikel Nieve	Discovery Channel	+ 1'22
10		Chris Froome	Team Sky	s.t.

Points

1		Kenny Van Hummel	Team LottoNL - Jumbo	90
2		Tyler Farrar	Tinkoff - Saxo	65
3		Mark Renshaw	Discovery Channel	65
4		Marcel Kittel	Astana Pro Team	64
5		Fränk Schleck	Etixx - Quick·Step	63

Mountain

1		Jelle Vanendert	Lotto - Soudal	26
2		Tejay Van Garderen	Trek Factory Racing	24
3		David López	Euskaltel - Euskadi	24
4		Fränk Schleck	Etixx - Quick·Step	18
5		Vasil Kiryienka	Tinkoff - Saxo	16

Young

1		Tanel Kangert	HTC - Highroad	17h19'36
2		Damiano Caruso	Team Cannondale - Garmin	+ 2'33
3		Silvan Dillier	BMC Racing Team	+ 6'29
4		Rafal Majka	Lotto - Soudal	+ 6'57
5		Bryan Coquard	FDJ	+ 9'13

Teams

1		BMC Racing Team	51h03'20
2		Etixx - Quick·Step	+ 7
3		HTC - Highroad	+ 13
4		AG2R La Mondiale	+ 1'49
5		Team Cannondale - Garmin	+ 1'51

Lopez playing the waiting game

Alway nice with a surprise win, van Leijen did that with the help of his team.

Stage 6: Tarazona - Jaca



The 6th stage will be again another uphill finish. There will be plenty of them in this 2016 Vuelta. The stage is fairly straight-forward until the last 30 kilometers. The riders will then have to tackle the long but irregular Puerto de Oroel. There will only be 12 kilometers from its top to the finish line in Jaca. However, the stage will not finish in the town but in the 2.5 kilometers long climb to the Fuerte del Rapitan. The favorites for the stage have to be the puncheurs as the final climb has quite steep gradients.



The first intermediate sprint was placed in Tudela, only after 20 kilometers of stage. There was a big group at the front including Tom Danielson (LottoNL), Stefan Schumacher (HTC), Nick Nuyens (BMC), Damiano Caruso (Cannondale), Julien Simon (FDJ) and Daniel Martin (Ag2r). The 12 riders had a gap of 1' 50'' over the main bunch. However, Lotto was not happy with the break and they had put half of the team to chase hard to bring them back. It was quite strange as there was no rider that was a threat in the GC.



Lotto was really pushing his team a lot to keep the break under control and by the time that they reached the second intermediate sprint they had caught a few of the riders in the break but others, like Yoann Offredo, had replaced them. Tony Martin and Rafal Majka were doing a great job and especially the German is a great flat rider. With 113 kilometers to go the chase was still on and if no other teams begin to help Lotto they will have to give up at some point.



Lotto eventually gave up the chase but they kept a bit of pressure on the break, never letting them get a big gap. Mikel Nieve took advantage of the strong pace to attack with 24 kilometers to go, 12 from the top of the Puerto de Oroel. The climb was very long but irregular. Nieve was 2' 10'' behind the break while the peloton was 2' 40'' behind. At the break Julien Simon lost contact after suffering a puncture. Therefore, there were only 7 riders at the front group. It was surprising that no team had helped Lotto so far.



The attack by Mikel Nieve finally was the trigger for other teams to start helping Lotto setting the pace in the bunch. Important riders like Andrew Talansky, Peter Stetina and Robert Kiserlovski were leading the chase. The favorites for the GC were already moving to the front of the group of 80 riders. It was surprising the Stetina was working in BMC but obviously they thought that Emanuele Sella was their best chance of getting a stage win today. Among other riders that could have fought for the win, Simon Ponzi did not want to get involved and dropped from the group a few kilometers before.



The early break was finally caught at the top of the Puerto de Oroel. Nevertheless, Yoann Offredo was first at the top followed by Carlos Betancur and Emanuele Sella. They had 15 seconds on Alexandr Kolobnev and Bjorn Leukemans. The attackers and the riders from the break were mixing up considerably in the last kilometer of the climb. 25 second back was a group of 5 riders including Jerome Coppel while the group of the leader crossed the top of the climb 50 seconds behind Offredo. With 12 kilometers to go even a few seconds of advantage might prove to be enough as there is only a descent and the short final climb.



The group of the leader increased the pace in the descent of the first climb of the day and by the time the riders got to Jaca there was no one ahead. However, as soon as they entered the town the attacks started again. It was Bjorn Leukemans that got to the start of the climb to the Fuerte de Rapitan 1st. The World Champion had a gap of 15 seconds over Joost van Leijen and Ben Hermans. Meanwhile, the favorites were looking at each other and already 55 seconds behind with a bit more than 2 kilometers to go.



The final climb proved to be a tough test on the riders after a stage that was harder than expected. Bjorn Leukemans could not hold his gap and was left behind by Frank Schleck and Joost van Leijen. They were already inside the last kilometer when they started the final sprint for the line. Schleck had proven to have good legs by leaving all of the other favorites behind in such an explosive climb. The gap over the other favorites was 25 seconds. They were led by Jerome Coppel, Leukemans, Cadel Evans and Ben Hermans.



Frank Schleck wins in Jaca! It was a show of power by the Etixx rider, who easily beat Joost van Leijen in the final sprint and takes his 2nd win of the season. It was expected that Frank Schleck would do well in the Vuelta but he is surpassing the expectations so far. Joost van Leijen crossed the finish line in 2nd position and 11 second behind the winner. It was a stage that was better suited to him than yesterday but he could not take another win. It has been a very good start of the Vuelta for the Giant rider.

Jelle Vanendert was 3rd and only managed to save his leader's jersey by a mere 6 seconds. David Lopez led another group along Jerome Coppel and Cadel Evans but lost a significant 37 seconds with Schleck. A few other riders lost even more time as this first week of the Vuelta has proven to be much more important than anticipated beforehand. Riders like Peter Stetina and Laurens Ten Dam are already almost 2 minutes down in the GC. Their time should come in the high mountains but they will have a lot of time to recover.

Today's Winner



Stage Results

1		Fränk Schleck	Etixx - Quick·Step	4h08'02
2		Joost Van Leijen	Team Giant - Alpecin	+ 11
3		Jelle Vanendert	Lotto - Soudal	+ 20
4		David López	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 37
5		Jérôme Coppel	IAM Cycling	s.t.
6		Cadel Evans	Movistar Team	s.t.
7		Björn Leukemans	Lotto - Soudal	+ 52
8		Levi Leipheimer	HTC - Highroad	s.t.
9		Emanuele Sella	BMC Racing Team	s.t.
10		Ben Hermans	Team Katusha	s.t.

General Classification

1		Jelle Vanendert	Lotto - Soudal	21h21'20
2		Fränk Schleck	Etixx - Quick·Step	+ 6
3		David López	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 40
4		Tejay Van Garderen	Trek Factory Racing	+ 1'09
5		Jérôme Coppel	IAM Cycling	+ 1'36
6		Cadel Evans	Movistar Team	+ 1'38
7		Peter Stetina	BMC Racing Team	+ 1'51
8		Laurens Ten Dam	Team Cannondale - Garmin	s.t.
9		Mikel Nieve	Discovery Channel	+ 1'55
10		Robert Gesink	AG2R La Mondiale	+ 2'26

Points

1		Kenny Van Hummel	Team LottoNL - Jumbo	90
2		Fränk Schleck	Etixx - Quick·Step	83
3		Jelle Vanendert	Lotto - Soudal	76
4		Joost Van Leijen	Team Giant - Alpecin	72
5		David López	Euskaltel - Euskadi	65

Mountain

1		Jelle Vanendert	Lotto - Soudal	36
2		Fränk Schleck	Etixx - Quick·Step	34
3		David López	Euskaltel - Euskadi	32
4		Tejay Van Garderen	Trek Factory Racing	24
5		Vasil Kiryienka	Tinkoff - Saxo	16

Young

1		Tanel Kangert	HTC - Highroad	21h30'43
2		Damiano Caruso	Team Cannondale - Garmin	+ 3'59
3		Ruben Plaza	Discovery Channel	+ 11'29
4		Rafal Majka	Lotto - Soudal	+ 13'06
5		Arthur Vichot	AG2R La Mondiale	+ 14'49

Teams

1		Etixx - Quick·Step	63h30'43
2		HTC - Highroad	+ 1
3		BMC Racing Team	+ 16
4		Lotto - Soudal	+ 2'35
5		Trek Factory Racing	+ 3'00