The mountainous stages start with a rather short stage between Palas de Rei and the Puerto de Ancares. The climb that separates Galicia from Castilla y Leon is a very tough climb of 16.7 kilometers averaging 6.7%. However, the gradient is misleading as it has a couple of flat parts. The stage is a continuous up and down the hills and mountains and the climb to Folgueiras d'Aigas should filter the race for the attacks of the favorites in the final climb.
A total of 7 riders formed the break of the day, which included Tanel Kangert (HTC), Vasil Kiryienka (Tinkoff), Samuel Sanchez (Movistar), Julien Simon (FDJ) and Jonathan Hivert (Sky). They got to the first climb of the day, the Alto de Portomarin, with a gap of 4 minutes over the bunch. Kiryienka, who won the stage finishing at Ezaro and is only 8 minutes behind in the GC, took the KoM points. Meanwhile, Lotto was setting a rather easy pace at the front of the bunch as they were not in a rush to bring them back.
Lotto was not willing to do the job of bringing the break back and they let other teams set the pace for a while, including BMC, Trek and IAM. However, the pace that riders like Sylvain Dillier and Adriano Malori were setting was not too high. The gap at the top of the Alto de Vilaesteva had grown to 7 minutes with 80 kilometers to go. Meanwhile, Vasil Kiryienka grabbed the KoM points again and moved to the provisional 2nd place in the mountains' classification.
The early break kept a high pace in the stage and at the start of the climb to Folgueiras d'Aigas the gap had grown to 9' 15''. The climb was quite demanding and classified 1st category. Lotto had to take the responsibility again in the bunch as Vasil Kiryienka was the virtual leader of the GC at that point. However, the picture changed a bit at the bottom of the climb as Joaquim Rodriguez started to set the pace in the bunch for Euskaltel. It seemed that David Lopez wanted to try something an a harder pace would work for him.
The climb to Folgueiras d'Aigas was quiet in the group of the favorites although Quickstep took over the lead of the group and started to increase the pace with riders like Pierre Rolland, Janez Brajkovic and Marco Pinotti. However, Mikel Nieve attacked in the last kilometer of the climb and the Spaniard was not chasing the KoM points. He was soon followed by Tom Danielson, Ben Hermans and Davide Rebellin. The gap to the break had decreased a bit to 8 minutes and the favorites seemed happy to wait for the final climb to Ancares.
Samuel Sanchez attacked from the early break at the start of the climb to Ancares and soon opened a gap of 15 seconds over Julien Simon, who was trying to chase him and 35 seconds over the rest of the break. Nevertheless, with 11 kilometers to go there was plenty of terrain for the others to mount a chase. Back among the favorites, three riders managed to consolidate a gap of 30 seconds ahead of the bunch: Tom Danielson, Davide Rebellin and Jean-Christophe Peraud. Robert Kiserlovski was now setting the pace for Lotto with a steady but not too hard pace.
The group of 3 riders that got a gap on the group of the leader were quickly reeled back in as soon as the climb proper started. Robert Kiserlovski was leading the charge but instead of Jelle Vanendert on his wheel it was David Lopez, who looked really keen on attacking early on the climb. Meanwhile, with 10 kilometers remaining on this group Cadel Evans had been dropped and seemed to be struggling to catch back. The 7th placed in the GC was having a really bad day, which will hurt Movistar a lot.
David Lopez attacked with 7 kilometers to go but Jelle Vanendert was very quick to react and close the gap. However, the next attack by Peter Stetina was followed by Lopez while Vanendert could not go with them. On the other hand, they were joined by Jerome Coppel and Chris Froome. It was surprising to see Froome in this gap given that he had not had a great Vuelta so far. With 5 kilometers to go, Samuel Sanchez was still leading with a gap of 45 seconds on the rest of the break, while Lopez's group was 5' 20'' behind and the group of the leader was losing 5' 45''.
The headwind in the toughest part of the climb absolutely shattered the chances of the early break. With 3 kilometers Samuel Sanchez was still on the lead but the rest of the break had been absorbed by the group of the leader. Peter Stetina was his lonely chaser, 50 seconds behind but at that rate the Spaniard would be caught long before the top of the climb. David Lopez and the others had been caught by Jelle Vanendert and the group had grown a bit. Among those left behind already were Emanuele Sella, Jurgen van den Broeck and Cadel Evans. These 2 were losing almost 2 minutes with Vanendert's group.
David Lopez waited a lot to do his final attack but when he did it he just could not be followed. The Spaniard entered the last kilometer leading the stage and only Peter Stetina could be close to his pace. Nevertheless, the American was losing 15 seconds as he tried to follow but failed. Third on the road was Jerome Coppel, who is becoming a huge surprise in the race. Meanwhile, Samuel Sanchez was leading Jelle Vanendert's group 45 seconds behind Lopez. Frank Schleck had stayed close to the leader as they were working together to limit the losses.
David Lopez wins at the Puerto de Ancares! The Euskaltel rider was clearly the best today at the final climb and although he waited for too long before doing his final attack he won clearly and put a big enough gap on his rivals to get the leader's jersey at the end of the day. This was his first win in the 2016 Vuelta. Peter Stetina was much improved today and finished 2nd only 22 seconds behind. It is clear that Stetina shines the most when there is several mountains in the stage and the route so far had not favored him at all.
The surprise of the day was probably Jerome Coppel, who finished 3rd. Many pundits were expecting him to drop from the top of the GC but instead of that he was among the best in today's stage. A group of 4 riders followed, including Jelle Vanendert and Frank Schleck. They lost 56 seconds, which means that Vanendert is now 32 seconds behind in the GC. However, more than the gap in the GC it must be the manner in which it was produced that will hurt the Belgian. They will have no time to let it settle as tomorrow's stage finishes at the Lagos de Covandonga, another very demanding climb.
I can guarantee that no rider has been taking performance enhancement drugs in this story. I have a very detailed method of setting up the attributes and I don't take any drugs while doing the calculations.
Davide Rebellin is a rider that made a big impact as soon as he joined the World Tour when he was a young cyclist. The Italian is now 28 years old and has settled among the elite riders in the peloton, although he has been a bit more inconsistent in the latter years. This season has been quite a change for him, given that Rebellin had spent 5 years at the Movistar Team and at the end of 2015 he decided to explore a different approach with Astana.
The early years of Davide Rebellin were marked by his wins in hilly races. He got the win at the Eneco Tour in 2011, in his debut season, took the Tour de Pologne in 2012 and was 1st in the Vuelta al Pais Vasco in 2013. The last one has been his best win so far. From 2013 onwards the approach changed a little bit and he tried to focus a bit more on the classics but the bet did not really pay out. He had had podiums in Liege and in Lombardia that he could never repeat.
On the other hand, he kept getting good results in stage races but he was never back to his previous form. It should also be kept in mind that in 2012 and 2013 he was among the top 10 in the World Tour rankings. The area where he seemingly improved was in Grand Tours. He accumulates 1 win in the Tour de France and 2 stage wins in the Giro d'Italia.
His performance in Astana has been more or less in line with the results he got the last couple of seasons. He took a couple of stage wins in the Tour Down Under and in the Tour de Pologne and also jumped on the podium of the Clasica de San Sebastian. The Kazakh team might have been looking from a couple of extra results from him but they cannot be disappointed with him. They also have a couple of races where Rebellin might do a good job: Qubec and Lombardia.
I can guarantee that no rider has been taking performance enhancement drugs in this story. I have a very detailed method of setting up the attributes and I don't take any drugs while doing the calculations.
Ha ha, no I guess you dont, otherwise we might expect Kittel to win in the mountains.
But it is actually amasing how well mr. Lopez does in most races, compared to his strenght sheet, where he should be on level with several other riders.
The second stage on the weekend was another finish at an HC climb. This time it was the turn for a classic climb of the Vuelta: Lagos de Covadonga. However, the stage will not be too demanding as the only real difficulty will be the climb to the Mirador del Fito. The 1st category climb reaches its top 38 kilometers from the finish line. Nevertheless, the final climb is hard enough to provide a good show on its own. We will see if the order of the GC stays the same or there are any surprises.
The stage started at the top of the Spanish plateau and the riders entered Asturias descending the Puerto de Pajares. The first intermediate sprint of the day was placed in Villallana, 123 kilometers from the finish line. The break of the day had been formed in the first attempt. It was made of 6 riders, including Tom Slagter (Cannondale), Mauro Santambrogio (Sky), Tom van Asbroeck (Vacansoleil), Franco Pellizotti (BMC) and Lars Peter Nordhaug (Ag2r). Euskaltel was controlling the pace in the bunch and in the sprint Kenny van Hummel was quicker than Fran Ventoso and Tyler Farrar.
Even though the previous terrain was not too easy, the interesting part of the stage started with the climb to the Mirador del Fito. Euskaltel was setting the pace to filter the peloton a bit with Dani Moreno and Gorka Izagirre at the front. The gap to the early break had grown to 6' 25'' but if the Spanish team was determined, it would not be enough for them to fight for the stage. Mauro Santambrogio was 1st at the top of the climb. At the peloton, some outsiders attacked in the latter part of the climb, including Mikel Nieve.
Mathias Frank was the only of the attackers in the peloton that managed to open a gap in the descent. The Swiss has let his teammate Jerome Coppel take the leading role in the Vuelta but is also looking for a space to shine. With 15 kilometers remaining he had a gap of 45 seconds on the bunch but even if he was 20 minutes behind in the GC Euskaltel was not letting him go. The bunch was slimmed to around 100 riders after the climb to El Fito.
Franco Pellizotti and Mauro Santambrogio attacked at the bottom of the final climb to the Lagos de Covadonga. With 11 kilometers to go they had opened a small gap over the rest of the early break while Mathias Frank started the climb 4' 30'' behind. Their advantage seemed a bit small considering the very hard climb that they were about to face. Meanwhile, the fight in the peloton was to grab the front positions of the peloton. The climb starts all of a sudden and it is very important to be at the front.
Cadel Evans and Robert Gesink were the most combative riders at the start of the climb in the bunch. They opened a gap with 9 kilometers to the finish line after the bunch managed to reel Mathis Frank in. The Australian was surely looking for revenge after the time he lost yesterday in Ancares. Jerome Coppel was also trying to open a gap but the French was going to be a wheel that many riders would be following. He would not have any margin. Joaquim Rodriguez and Danilo di Luca were trying to pace the group so that these attacks did not go far. Meanwhile, the gap of the break dropped to 4 minutes.
The attack from David Lopez had to happen and the Spaniard chose the hardest part of the climb, La Huesera, to open a gap that might be too big for anyone to close. With 5 kilometers to go he had cut the gap of the break to only 1 minute while a group of favorites were 1' 40'' behind. Frank Schleck and Jelle Vanendert took the responsibility of trying to close the gap. Among those left behind was Chris Froome, who was 2' 40'' behind Lopez. Another group including Bauke Mollema and Denis Menchov was even further down the road. Mollema had clearly given up on the race.
There is a small descent with about 3 kilometers to go in the climb, where the first of the lakes is. By the time the riders got there the race was completely shattered. Peter Stetina and Jerome Coppel formed the 3rd group on the road as Jelle Vanendert and Frank Schleck had left all the other chasers behind. They had caught Tom Slagter and the 3 were 35 seconds behind David Lopez. Stetina and Coppel were losing 1' 05''. The American has clearly improve with the passing of days in the Vuelta and might even be in a position to fight for a stage if he keeps the progression.
Jelle Vanendert and Frank Schleck were chasing David Lopez like mad but they could barely shave a bit of time off the gap for the Spaniard. They were losing 35 seconds as they got inside the last kilometer of the stage, which was uphill again. Lopez looked set to consolidate his lead. Meanwhile, Jerome Coppel and Peter Stetina had caught up with Tom Slagter, the last member of the early break to be caught, and were 1 minute behind. The gaps behind them were quite impressive for a stage that was not that hard on paper.
David Lopez wins at the Lagos the Covadonga! This was another impressive ride by the Spaniard, who gets his 2nd stage win in the Vuelta and increases his gap at the front of the GC. It is also the 10th win of the season for him, clearly the riders with the most wins so far. Jelle Vanendert crossed the finish line 2nd ahead of Frank Schleck, both 40 seconds behind. Jerome Coppel and Peter Stetina lost 1' 08''. It was clear again that the pecking order is more or less unchanged so far in the race.
Many of the rest of the favorites lost a bit more than 2 minutes, Laurens Ten Dam leading them. The Dutch sits 6th in the GC but is almost 7 minutes behind. There is still a long way to go but the podium places look very much set in stone. However, the next stage after the rest day will be another good test with another HC finish at the top of Cuitu Negru. In this occasion the climb will be preceded by another HC and one 1st category climb so the stage is meant to be considerably harder.
The 16th stage is probably the hardest in the 2016 Vuelta a España. The stage will start at Gijon, next to the sea but move soon towards the mountains of Northern Spain. The riders will have to tackle three significant climbs: the Alto de San Lorenzo, the Alto de la Cobertoria and the climb to the sky resort of Valgrande-Pajares. This last climb was usually a bit shorter but they have asphalted a section of the actual sky slopes so that the race goes to the peak of the mountains. It will be a very tough addition to a stage that has 4,500 meters of climbing.
The small Alto de la Cabruñana was the first difficulty of the day. A break of 9 riders had already made it up the road, including Tanel Kangert (HTC), Domenico Pozzovivo (Trek), Rui Costa (Ag2r), Samuel Sanchez (Movistar) and Damiano Caruso (Cannondale). It was quite a strong set up for a break in the mountains. Euskaltel could not really be bothered to control the gap, which had grown to 4 minutes with 133 kilometers to go. There was a lot of climbing to be done today. Samuel Sanchez was first at the KoM sprint but none of the riders seemed to be bothered to grab the points.
The main bunch was really taking a day off as the gap at the top of the Alto de San Lorenzo, an HC climb, had rocketed to 13 minutes. Euskaltel were setting the pace with riders like Dani Moreno, Gorka Izagirre and Rinaldo Nocentini but they were not even pushing too much. With 80 kilometers to go it looked like the stage would be gifted to the break. Nevertheless, even though the day was quite relaxed many riders were already looking for an easier pace and dropping from the back of the pack.
The day had turned miserable as the riders approached the Alto de La Cobertoria. Halfway through the climb it was pouring on the riders but the gap kept increasing and it was 14' 30''. For now, the front group was sticking together as even the weakest climbers were making their best to hold on and have a chance in the final climb. Among those in the group the highest placed in the GC was Tanel Kangert but he was 23 minutes behind so even with the huge gap they had it would not do to get to the top 10 in the GC.
Euskaltel increased the pace in the climb to the Alto de la Cobertoria but even doing that the gap only decreased to 13' 30'', which with 41 kilometers remaining should be more than enough for the break. Also, as long as Greg van Avermaet is one of the riders doing the pacing one can be sure that the pace in the mountains is not that high. As the peloton went through the KoM sprint the break had already completed the descent towards the valley and turned towards the sky resort. Around 90 riders survived in the bunch.
The members of the break lived happily together until they hit the first slopes of the climb to the Alto de Pajares. Samuel Sanchez, who is riding very close to home, Carlos Betancur and Julian Arredondo attacked at the break and opened a gap of 25 seconds with 15 kilometers to go. The climb has 2 flatter sections so the average gradient is a bit misleading today. Meanwhile, Danilo di Luca suffered a puncture at the group of the leader and Euskaltel was going to miss him in the climb as he is one of the best helpers for David Lopez in the mountains.
Juanjo Cobo attacked at the bottom of the climb and very surprisingly David Lopez himself responded to that attack. They did not go anywhere but it might have been a show of strength by the Spaniard to calm the waters. The next attack came from another HTC rider, Levi Leipheimer. The riders in the American team are really up for it in the Vuelta but they are not that strong when it comes to the key parts of the climbing. Chris Froome also tried to open a gap but again he could not do it. Lots of riders were still surviving in the group of the leader. with 14 kilometers to go for them.
Peter Stetina and Levi Leipheimer were allowed to go eventually in the 2nd part of the climb. With 8 kilometers to go for the favorites they had opened a gap of 55 seconds over David Lopez's group. Just before Jelle Vanendert attacked with Emanuele Sella and Lopez had to close the gap before it grew bigger. Meanwhile, the break riders were approaching the second flat section of the climb, where the actual sky resort is placed. Samuel Sanchez was alone at the front but only had 15 seconds on the rest, where Carlos Betancur was having trouble to stay.
David Lopez attacked from the group and again today nobody was able to follow. He got to Peter Stetina as they reached the sky resort area with 6 kilometers to go. They already had 15 seconds on Levi Leipheimer and 30 on Laurens Ten Dam, Jelle Vanendert and Frank Schleck. Jerome Coppel was not giving out good signs as he lost contact with this group. It seems like the race today was a bit too hard for the liking of the French. Meanwhile, Samuel Sanchez was caught back by the early break. They were already at the bottom of the final part with extreme gradients.
Domenico Pozzovivo was in principle the best of the climbers in the break and he attacked ahead of the last kilometer. Only Tanel Kangert could follow him and they had a gap of 15 seconds on Samuel Sanchez, Damiano Caruso and Rui Costa with 700 meters to go. It looked like the stage would be among the couple at the front but the gradient of the last kilometer was 15%. Meanwhile, David Lopez had cut their gap to only 3' 20''. It gives an idea of how quick the men fighting for the GC climbed the last difficulty of the day. However, it was not enough to get the stage.
Domenico Pozzovivo wins at Valgrande-Pajares! Pozzovivo managed to leave Tanel Kangert behind in the tough slopes of the last kilometer and took his first win of the season and the 10th for Trek Factory Racing. The Italian showed a good punch after a very tough stage and with the weather not helping the riders. Kangert took the 2nd place in the stage and consolidated his lead in the young's classification. His rival Damiano Caruso crossed the line 3rd, 53 seconds behind Domenico Pozzovivo. Rui Costa and Samuel Sanchez completed the top 5 in the stage.
In the fight among the favorites David Lopez was clearly the strongest again. He put 1' 09'' on Peter Stetina, 1' 16'' on Jelle Vanendert, 1' 33'' on Frank Schleck and 1' 41'' on Laurens Ten Dam. The biggest loser of the stage in GC terms was Jerome Coppel. The French did not find the form that he had had in previous days and lost almost 2 minutes to Peter Stetina, which means that the American overtook him in the fight for the 4th place overall. Tomorrow's stage will be the last of the mountains streak but much less difficult than what the riders had to face today.
The last of the mountains block of stages ends with another mountain top finish at Fuente De. This will be the easiest by far among the stages in the last few days as there are only two climbs before the final uphill finish and they are not too hard. The final climb is also gentle with an average of 4.3% and many easy parts where a group will ride far quicker than a solo rider. Nevertheless, there might be attackers either for the stage win or to try to win positions in the GC as there is only one more mountain stage in the Vuelta in the penultimate day.
The break of the day was quite good in terms of quality but none of the 9 riders was a threat in the GC. Among them were Cameron Meyer (Trek), Tiago Machado (Tinkoff), Stefano Garzelli (Movistar), Thibaut Pinot (Discovery) and Tom Slagter (Cannondale). The first intermediate sprint of the day was placed in San Vicente de la Barquera, with 96 kilometers to go. The break had built a gap of 7 minutes at that point as Euskaltel could not care less about them making their way. They are clearly not interested in the stage wins any more.
Although the terrain is never flat for a long time in the North of Spain, the first categorized climb did not happen until 62 kilometers from the finish. It was the Collada de Ozalva. Euskaltel was setting a pace that was enough not to let the gap grow wild but not too demanding. The break already had 10' 30'' at that point. While Greg van Avermaet is leading the group the pace cannot be too high in a mountains stage. The final climb is not too hard so the break has a great chance for the stage.
The Collada de Hoz was climbed right after Ozalva. Stefano Garzelli was the first to cross the KoM sprint but none of the riders at the front group were willing to fight for the mountains' points. In principle, the best riders in the final climb should be Tiago Machado and Thibaut Pinot but with so many days in the legs of the riders it was really difficult to guess. Euskaltel started to pick up the pace a little in the bunch but nothing too serious. They still had 48 kilometers to race.
The first attacks in the final climb were started by Richie Porte in the break. However, it was Thibaut Pinot who opened a gap with 13 kilometers to go. He had 15 seconds on Richie Porte and Stefano Garzelli and 35 on the rest of the group. However, in a climb that rewarded groups rather than solo attacks it seemed to early to attack. They still had a sizeable gap of 8' 45'' on the bunch, where Euskaltel had definitely increased the pace. However, it was clearly not for the stage win any more.
A few of the outsiders for the win in the bunch attacked as soon as the road turned uphill. A group including Emanuele Sella, Tejay van Garderen, Jurgen van den Broeck and Robert Gesink had a small gap of 30 seconds over the group of the leader with 13 kilometers to go for them. None of them were dangerous for David Lopez so Joaquim Rodriguez kept setting the pace for Euskaltel at the speed that the leader wanted. Cadel Evans also seemed keen to attack but he had more willingness than strength.
The 3 attackers from the early break joined at the front of the race but Tiago Machado decided to take the responsibility to chase and their gap was reduced to only 20 seconds with 6 kilometers to go. Meanwhile, the first attack among the favorites was reeled back in and Juanjo Cobo was giving it a go at that point. A more interesting attack had happened a couple of kilometers before when Jelle Vanendert tried to filter in a group but David Lopez played it cool and let his teammates bring them back.
Mathias Frank was the latest rider to attack in the group of the leader with 6 kilometers to go. However, Joaquim Rodriguez and Danilo di Luca were very solid driving the peloton uphill without much trouble. There were still around 75 riders in the group, which meant that the climb was not that hard. Many of the best riders did not even bother attacking today as they might have thought it worthless. The differences at the break were minimal and they only had 3 kilometers to the finish line.
Stefano Garzelli was reluctant to be caught and attacked from the group that led the stage before they were caught by the rest of the early break. He entered the last kilometer of the stage with a gap of 10 seconds over Richie Porte and 20 on the chasers, where Tom Slagter, Johann Tschopp, Cyril Gautier and Tom van Asbroeck were leading the way. It was hard to say whether it would be enough as the last kilometer was one of the toughest of the climb, although averaging no more than 6%.
Stefano Garzelli wins in Fuente De! The Italian held the lead just enough to beat Tom Slagter, who was the quickest of the finishers in the chasing group. It was a very important win for Movistar, who were already due a win at the most important race in Spanish soil in the season. This is the first win of the season for Garzelli and his first win at Movistar. The 3rd place went to Tiago Machado, who probably was too conservative during the climb, while Johann Tschopp and Steven Kruijswijk completed the top 5.
David Lopez decided to attack at the 3 kilometers mark and again no one was able to follow initially. However, the slopes were not that hard and others had not spent so much energy today and in the end the leader crossed the finish line alongside Laurens Ten Dam and Peter Stetina. They got a small gap of 11 seconds over a group including Frank Schleck, Jelle Vanendert and Tejay van Garderen among others. However, a further group lost 49 seconds to the leader including Jerome Coppel. That meant that the French slipped to the 6th position in the GC behind Laurens Ten Dam.
In principle there will be only 1 more stage where differences can be made among the favorites as for the next two days the stages will be mostly flat and the last day of the Vuelta it is the party at Madrid. Coppel will be happy that the mountains are over as he was slipping more and more as the days went by. Tomorrow should be a day clearly for the sprinters but their pecking order might be completely changed after so many mountains.
The mountains are over and the flat fields of the Spanish plateau will be a welcome sight for many riders. The route will take the riders south towards Valladolid on the way back to Madrid during this last week of the Vuelta. In principle it will be a stage for the sprinters but the easier stages during the last week of a Grand Tour can be unpredictable. However, a break would like at least a bit of difficulty in the last kilometers whereas the route around Valladolid is completely flat.
The riders were not too combative today and the break took a few kilometers to form. It was not because it was being fought but because no one wanted to attack. In the end it was a group of 5 riders: Wilco Kelderman (Giant), Niki Terpstra (Orica), Warren Barguil (IAM), Taylor Phinney (Discovery) and Lieuwe Westra (Vacansoleil). They made it to the first intermediate sprint of the day, in Fromista, with a gap of 5 minutes over the bunch. At the group, Kenny van Hummel was quickest ahead of Marcel Kittel and Mark Cavendish.
The second sprint of the day was placed in Cigales, 52 kilometers from the finish line. Marcel Kittel was the quickest in the bunch ahead of Tyler Farrar and Jose Joaquin Rojas, with Kenny van Hummel nowhere to be seen and maybe saving for the final sprint. The gap for the break was stable at around 5' 45'' with the peloton cruising but not really chasing yet. The break might make it to the end of the stage but only Lieuwe Westra seemed to be a good enough rider in the group. Anyway, the teams of the sprinters should start to chase if they want to bring them back.
Wilco Kelderman attacked from the early break with 15 kilometers to go, already in the circuit in the surroundings of Valladolid. With 9 to go he had a gap of 30 seconds over the rest of the break and 55'' on the main bunch. The chasers woke up late but riders like Rob Ruijgh, Tiago Machado and Vasil Kiryienka joined the domestiques when trying to reel them back and the gap came down quite fast. Nevertheless, they were still chasing like crazy as it was not at all settled.
The break was eventually caught back as the sprint trains were forming in the bunch. Even though Wilco Kelderman tried to make it to the end it was an impossible job when the peloton was chasing at full speed. LottoNL had the first sprint train with Alessandro Petacchi ready to work for Kenny van Hummel as Simone Ponzi was right behind. Meanwhile, Gianni Meersman would lead Tyler Farrar out for Tinkoff. Among the other sprinters trying to make progress we could find Jose Joaquin Rojas, Mark Cavendish and Marcel Kittel.
Witha bit more than 1 kilometer to go it was clear that Tyler Farrar had started his final sprint way too early. To make matters worse he was dragging Mark Cavendish with him and effectively leading him out. Astana formed a late train with Grega Bole leading Marcel Kittel to the front of the group and improving his chances in the stage considerably. Kenny van Hummel was also left in the dark by his team a bit too early and was trying to make progress alongside Tony Gallopin and Jose Joaquin Rojas.
Tyler Farrar was still leading the way at the 600 meters mark and Mark Cavendish did not seem to have the legs to get around him. Farrar always does a good job in sprints after the mountains and today might be his day. However, Jose Joaquin Rojas and Chris Sutton were making good progress on the right hand side of the road and looked threatening for the American. On the other side of the road Kenny van Hummel and Marcel Kittel also started their sprint but they had to make up a lot of ground.
Kenny van Hummel wins in Valladolid! There is no point in trying to fight against Van Hummel in the latter part of the season. This is his 5th win in the Vuelta a España and there might still be 2 other stages that finish in mass sprints this year. He took the win in the last few meters as Jose Joaquin Rojas was thinking that no one would be able to get past him. However, the Spaniard will have to settle for the 2nd place. Tyler Farrar was 3rd ahead of Marcel Kittel and Chris Sutton.
The stage was really quiet for the riders in the GC and tomorrow should be no different. These two stages must be a good relief for them after a very demanding 4 stages in a row at the mountains. The points' competition is now almost settled as Van Hummel increased his gap over Marcel Kittel to almost 100 points, which would be very difficult to gain back in the remaining stages. Nevertheless, tomorrow they will have another chance at La Lastrilla.
