Stage 11 - Hilly with hilly top finish
The 8 man break had a maximum lead of 15 minutes. The race behind them wasn't full of incident. The first attack among the leaders happened all of 8 km from the summit finish by Majka and Favilli. They were caught with 5 km to go. Meanwhile Simon Geschke won the stage from the breakaway. 3 km from the line, Majka, Landa and Spilak attacked, with the rest unable to keep up. The trio finished together, more than 8 minutes behind Geschke, but took time off their rivals.
Stage winner - Simon Geschke from breakaway Movistar - Mikel Landa 11th, 8'8" behind. Movistar lost the team lead Other important results - Simon Spilak 9th, Rafal Maka 10th, both 8'8" behind, Alexandre Geniez 8'22" behind, Ilnur Zakarin 8'32" behind
The GC after stage 11...
Spoiler
Stage 14 - Hilly with 2 major and 1 minor intermediate climbs
Intxausti was unwell overnight but he decided to fight it out on the road. The 5 man break had Bob Jungels as the danger man. The peloton didn't make much of a concentrated effort to catch the peloton and Jungels won. Rui Costa attacked at the base of the climb to the finish. The Movistar trio of Landa, Ion and the unwell Intxausti followed him. They left their competition behind, with Landa picking up a big advantage over Zakarin, who went from 2nd to 4th in the GC!
Stage winner - Bob Jungels from breakaway Movistar - Mikel Landa 7th, 6'3" behind, Benat Intxausti 8th, 6'24" behind, Ion Izagirre 10th, 7'2" behind Other important results - Rui Costa 6th, 6'3" behind, Simon Spilak 9th, 6'35" behind, Ilnur Zakarin 9'16" behind
The change in the GC...
Spoiler
Stage 15 - Mountain with mountain top finish
The first mountain stage is a typical Vuelta offering. A 5 man break having the likes of Gallopin and de Gendt stayed ahead for much of the stage. Behind them, at the base of the climb to the finish, Spilak launched his attack. He was able to build up a minute's lead. Landa and Zakarin attacked with 5 km left. They were able to catch Spilak. The trio then caught the lone surviving de Gendt 1 km from the line! Spilak faded as Landa and Zakarin sprinted for the finish. Who won? Well, a picture speaks a thousand words...
(The man in red beating the man in green at the summit)
Stage winner - Mikel Landa Movistar - Dayer Quintana 8th, 1'44" behind, Benat Intxausti 9th, 1'58" behind Other important results - Ilnur Zakarin 2nd, same time, Simon Spilak 3rd, 11" behind, Dennis Shmatovalenko 5th, 54" behind, Alexandre Geniez 6th, Rui Costa 7th, both 1'44" behind
Stage 16 - Mountain with mountain top finish, including 2 major and 1 minor intermediate climbs
Time Wellens was the star man in the 4 man break, which built up more than 15 minutes' advantage. There was an early pack split but the peloton was soon back together. After the third climb, the group of GC leaders was down to 6 riders, with only Landa having a domestique in the group. Landa soon lost his domestique, Dayer, on the ascent to the finish. Shmatovalenko and Spilak were droped next. By this time, Tim Wellens had won the stage. Zakarin attacked, but Landa quickly followed and left him behind. The latter got some time over all his rivals, thereby increasing his lead at the top of the leader-board.
Stage winner - Tim Wellens from breakaway Movistar - Mikel Landa 3rd, 2'39" behind Other important results - Ilnur Zakarin 5th, 3'4" behind, Alexandre Geniez 6th, 3'44" behind, Denis Shmatovalenko 8th, Simon Spilak 9th, both 4'32" behind, Warren Barguil 10th, 6'35" behind
The GC heading into the all important ITT...
Spoiler
Landa has done what was required so far - building up a sizeable lead before the ITT. Now it's just about holding on to it. Can he do it?
Stage 17 - Individual Time Trial - Flat - 46.2 km
The stage which would potentially make or break Landa's race and our season was this one. Landa is one the poorest in TT skills in our team. To add to that, Zakarin and Spilak, his main rivals in this race are accomplished in this discipline.
The stage saw no major upsets in terms of results. Landa, after a solid first half, faded towards the end losing just over and just under 4 minutes to Zakarin and Spilak respectively. Yohan Paillot won the stage for Sky. A great ride from Ion saw him finish in 11th, boosting his chances of a top 10 GC finish.
Stage winner - Yohan Paillot Movistar - Ion Izagirre 11th, losing 2'1", Benat Intxausti lost 2'55", Mikel Landa lost 5'23" Other important results - Michal Kwiatkowski 2nd, losing 18", Ilnur Zakarin 4th, losing 1'15", Alexandre Geniez 6th, losing 1'40", Simon Spilak 7th, losing 1'54", Dennis Shmatovalenko 8th, losing 1'56", Rui Costa 10th, losing 2'
The GC after this stage...
Spoiler
Phew!!
Stage 20 - Mountain with mountain top finish, including 2 major and 1 minor intermediate climbs
The 5 man breakaway built up a maximum lead of 26 minutes. Movistar did some chasing to narrow the gap, but mostly were not keen to chase them down with intent. The action started at the base of the climb to the finish with Kwiatkowski, Shmatovalenko, Spilak and Costa attacking. After a few km, only Spilak stayed ahead while the others were caught by the GC leaders. Shmatovalenko attacked again with less than 10 km to go, and Landa followed him. Meanwhile, Alex Howes crossed the line in first place, from the breakaway. Landa attacked with 5 km left, dropping Shmatovalenko and narrowing the gap to Spilak. The latter did manage to gain a few seconds at the line, but it wasn't enough to overhaul Landa. Zakarin lost time and dropped down a positon.
Stage winner - Alex Howes from breakaway. up into 10th place in the GC Movistar - Mikel Landa 7th. 15'59" behind, Benat Intxausti 10th, Ion Izagirre 11th, 17'34" behind Other important results - Simon Spilak 6th, 15'34" behind, Dennis Shmatovalenko 8th, 16'51" behind, Ilnur Zakarin 9th, 17'34" behind
The GC which has mostly sorted itself out...
Spoiler
Stage 21 - Flat
The short flat stage into Madrid did not go well for Movistar. Bryan Coquard got caught up in the pack just as the team had set up their sprint train and could not recover in time to challenge in the sprint. Lobato wasn't strong enough either. Sacha Modolo won the stage.
The Vuelta keeps throwing up interesting races and this year was no different. With an uncharacteristically small number climbs and climbing stages this time around, the GC was expected to be a close fought affair. Also, like the pre-race billings, stages 17 and 20 could have played an immense role in deciding the GC. Landa, however, had other ideas. Doing really well to get enough time in the stages prior to the ITT, he managed to hold on those two stages, to reap the benefits. An incredible 8th place from Ion Izagirre provides more reason for the team to celebrate. It could well have been three top 10s had Intxausti not lost time on stage 2 because of a fall. Movistar and Landa now have won the Vuelta twice in a row and for the third third time in the last five seasons for the team. It is indeed another night for celebration in the camp. They've earned it!
Coming midway through the Vuelta, this race saw Movistar pick a team which wouldn't necessarily have been their first choice. The race began in earnest with a 4 man breakaway pulling out to 7 minutes ahead of the peloton. Dan Martin was a high profile faller, but he recovered to make it back to the pack. Benoot took his chance to attack with 50 km to go, but was caught 15 km later. The breakaway was caught soon after. Damien Gaudin launched the next attack. With 12 km to go, it was Gaudin out in front with the peloton, reduced to less than a 100 riders, chasing. Gaudin did not last very long as Konig and Gorkha Izagirre attacked in tandem with 6 km to go. They were caught by the pack 2 km from the line. The race was decided in a bunch sprint, won by Christophe Laporte. Elia Viviani finished off a good week with a 6th place finish.
A 5 man breakaway formed but did not threaten much. Orica, Oranje and Giant-Alpecin did most of the chasing. With 20 km left, the break was down to a single rider. Arredondo attacked with 17 km to go, but the peloton accelerated to catch him and the lone surviving breakaway rider with 15 km to go. Aru attacked next. With 5 km to go, he had a 30 second lead over the peloton. He was caught and the riders launched their sprints to the line. Jesus Herrada emerged in front initially, but with about 500 metres to go, Sergio Henao turned on the afterburners (not literally ) and swept past to take the win for Orica. Dan Martin also pipped Herrada for 2nd position on the line, the latter having to settle for 3rd place.
Now to the second part of the Canadian adventure...
GP Cycliste de Montreal
The 2 man break was not allowed to build a big lead and was caught with just under 30 km to go. 6 riders - Stybar, Aru, Mohoric, Sebastien Henao, Dan Martin, Mathias Frank - attacked with 15 km to go. Martin and Frank was caught by the peloton but the other four stayed ahead and fought for the win. Matej Mohoric completed a Canadian sweep for Orica, adding a win to his already impressive classics results this season. Stybar came 2nd and Sebastien Henao took 3rd palce. Movistar cleaned up positions 5 through 10!
Thank you both! Don't forget Ion at Memorial Maroc Pantani too
Update from the World Championships, where I've changed teams to manage Spain this year...
World Championships
Individual Time Trial
With both representatives taken ill before this race, Spain were a non-starter! It turned out to be third time unlucky for Froome, as the two-time defending WC ITT champion had to settle for 3rd place and the bronze medal this time around. It was a case of old is gold at this race, as Richie Porte edged out Tony Martin by 10 seconds to become ITT World Champion. Martin took home the silver medal. Movistar's best was Adriano Malori in 10th place.
Road Race
The road race was held in a circuit with a climb, which the riders repeated 12 times, before the short flat approach to the finish. The climb was not severe and the race was almost surely going to be decided by a bunch sprint, unless someone took a chance and held on from a breakaway.
There was an early breakaway of 3 riders who had a 11 minute lead at the most. In the pack, Pim Ligthart was the first to attack with 35 km left, and was followed by Keukeliere. They were caught soon after with Yves Lampaert attacking next, 25 km from the finish. The break was caught with Lampaert still ahead at 15 km. Ion Izagirre and Rafael Valls attacked in tandem, with the latter catching up to Lampaert. Ion couldn't break free from the peloton. Eventually, with 10 km left, the peloton covered the gap, and all riders were back together. Intxausti and Vanmarcke attacked with 7 km to go. The former was caught 3 km from the line, while the latter managed to hang on till the 1 km banner. The pack launched their sprints. Nacer Bouhanni was too strong for everyone else, becoming World Champion. Alexander Kristoff came in 2nd and John Degenkolb finished in 3rd place. Elia Viviani finished 5th, Movistar's best result.
Some good recent results, Landa!'s Vuelta was awesome Must admit I've got a bit of catching up to do but its got really good!
24/02/21 - kandesbunzler said “I don't drink famous people."
15/08/22 - SotD said "Your [jandal's] humour is overrated"
11/06/24 - knockout said "Winning is fine I guess. Truth be told this felt completely unimportant." [ICL] Santos-Euskadi | [PT] Xero Racing
