On paper it doesn’t look to hard but today isn’t one for the sprinters, it’s for the punchers. The ending climb is thought and should give an real fight for the finish. There is an climb just before the end where daring riders could try to make an attack that sticks to the end. An breakaway is also not unthinkable, if Movistar is done winning.




An break was formed easily but not thanks to Movistar’s pace at the front. It were Garmin, Sky and RadioShack that used their riders in pursuit of Dumoulin (Argos), Geniez (FDJ), Velasco (Caja Rural), Seeldraeyers (Astana). However when it appeared that Movistar wouldn’t set anybody into the break the teams backed off and let the break get away


the breakaway today

A breakaway win isn’t going happy today most likely as the peloton has limited a 6,5 minute gap back to 2,5 minutes at the start of the Alto de Fraille, the climb before the final wall. This inspired Moser (Cannondale) and Birt (NetApp) to attack.


the attacks from the peloton

The two worked well together and bridged the gap to the breakaway together and the pack in the meantime let the gap grow to 3 minutes.


the latest additions to the breakaway

Just below the mountain sprint, Moser attacked to get an gap on his breakaway companions. Piedtra and Seeldraeyers followed but the gap Moser got is a minimal 11 seconds. At almost the exact place but two minutes later, Urán made a move to get some room


up and over the breakaway

Thanks to the big downhill the break has a 1,5 minute gap to the peloton when they started the final wall. The last additions to the break, Birt and Moser are the first to go and they have a 10 meter gap. Meanwhile the peloton has split up into 3 groups. The first group consist of Urán, Martin, Horner, Valverde, Rodríguez and Froome. The second group is 20 seconds behind them and are Van Den Broeck, König, Ghita, Owniak, Caruso. The rest of the riders are in the peloton and are 1,5 minutes behind.


Birt and Caruso started the final dash

Birt drops Caruso and the rest as soon as the gradiant move up to 20%. The others have caught up to Moser



Birt wins in Valdepeñas de Jeán, after yesterday’s amazing performance by Konig now it’s Birt to show what’s he worth.


NetApp amazing performance continues

The rest of the breakaway take up places 2-6 in the order Geniez (FDJ), Seeldraeyers (Astana), Dumoulin (Argos), Moser (Cannondale), Velasco (Caja Rural)


the breakaway holds on to the final podium spots

Rodríguez wins the peloton sprint, well have to look at the replay to see what exactly happened here as it looks like Valverde isn’t as strong as the previous stages, is he fading already?


Urán gets 8th behind Rodríguez in the peloton sprint, Froome 9th and Martin is 10th. Valverde has to settle with 11th infront of Horner. Leopold König closed the gap to the first riders from the peloton to take 13th.


Caruso, Owniak, Van den Broeck and Ghita lose a little time but are the last from the winners today. Everybody that finishes behind them are losing 2 minutes on the leaders. In this group are Majka (TST), Fuglsang (AST) and Sánchez (EUS)


Sánchez and Majka finishing in the peloton cost them dearly

The replay shows that Urán was the first to get an gap on the final climb and Rodríguez was the only one that could follow him, with both of them gaining time. On the rest





Valverde lost some time on today but still has a 1’45 lead on Rodriguez and 2’10 lead on Urán. Froome is just 5 seconds behind Urán and Horner is 15 seconds behind Froome. Martin is still 6th, Van den Broeck keeps gaining places and is now 7th. Fuglsang drops to 8th. Sánchez drops one place to 9th. Intxausti also drops a place to 10th. Ghita is 11th, Caruso is 13th, Majka is 15th, König is 18th and Ten Dam is 20th


the first neo-pro to win a stage in the Vuelta

Rank	Name	Team	Time
1	Mitchell Birt	Team NetApp - Endura	4h16'24
2	Alexandre Geniez	FDJ.fr	+ 33
3	Kevin Seeldraeyers	Astana Pro Team	s.t.
4	Tom Dumoulin	Team Argos - Shimano	s.t.
5	Moreno Moser	Cannondale Pro Cycling	s.t.
6	Iván Velasco	Caja Rural - Seguros RGA	s.t.
7	Joaquím Rodríguez	Katusha Team	+ 1'18
8	Rigoberto Urán	Sky Procycling	s.t.
9	Chris Froome	Sky Procycling	+ 1'32
10	Daniel Martin	Garmin - Sharp	+ 1'42

Rank	Name	Team	Time
1	Alejandro Valverde	Movistar Team	34h38'50
2	Joaquím Rodríguez	Katusha Team	+ 1'45
3	Rigoberto Urán	Sky Procycling	+ 2'10
4	Chris Froome	Sky Procycling	+ 2'15
5	Chris Horner	RadioShack - Leopard	+ 2'30
6	Daniel Martin	Garmin - Sharp	+ 2'59
7	Jurgen Van den Broeck	Lotto Belisol	+ 4'56
8	Jakob Fuglsang	Astana Pro Team	+ 5'14
9	Samuel Sánchez	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 6'08
10	Beñat Intxausti	Movistar Team	+ 6'11

Rank	Name	Team	Points	General
1	Alejandro Valverde	Movistar Team	5	122
2	Joaquím Rodríguez	Katusha Team	9	109
3	Rigoberto Urán	Sky Procycling	8	85
4	Chris Froome	Sky Procycling	7	67
5	Daniel Martin	Garmin - Sharp	6	56

Rank	Name	Team	Mountain	General
1	Alejandro Valverde	Movistar Team	0	20
2	Chris Froome	Sky Procycling	0	10
3	Jakob Fuglsang	Astana Pro Team	0	6
4	Sandy Casar	FDJ.fr	0	6
5	Ivan Santaromita	BMC Racing Team	0	5

Rank	Team	Time	General Time
1	Team NetApp - Endura	12h54'18	+ 47'18 (19)
2	Team Argos - Shimano	+ 54	+ 26'17 (12)
3	Cannondale Pro Cycling	s.t.	+ 28'08 (14)
4	Sky Procycling	+ 1'08	102h59'00 (1)
5	Astana Pro Team	+ 2'15	+ 19'23 (9)

Rank	Name	Team	Time	General Time
1	Mitchell Birt	Team NetApp - Endura	4h16'24	+ 15'20 (16)
2	Alexandre Geniez	FDJ.fr	+ 33	+ 12'16 (14)
3	Tom Dumoulin	Team Argos - Shimano	s.t.	+ 9'36 (11)
4	Moreno Moser	Cannondale Pro Cycling	s.t.	+ 11'05 (12)
5	Damian Owniak	BMC Racing Team	+ 2'03	+ 38 (2)