Everybody looks at Tony Martin today, the individual time trial world champion has been rather invisible the whole Vuelta. As biggest favorite for the stage anything else that isn’t a first place will be a disappointment. Main contenders are Chris Froome and in lesser extent Tom Dumoulin and Rohan Dennis. Speaking of Froome, he has a 14 seconds disadvantage over Rodriguez. Knowing Rodriguez abilities on a time trial bike it likely that Froome is going to take over the lead.




The first rider to beat the times set by the De Rijke rider Kai Reus was double Moroccan champion Shaqif (MTN) he set the first bar at 57’26�



the first favorite to start was dutch cobbler Niki Terpstra from Omega Pharma. His team disappointed in the team time trial as current world champion in that discipline. He’s currently get’s second place behind Shaqif. Only 10 seconds slower. 57’36�



The first rider to take Shaqif’s hotseat is Brian Vandborg. The former Danish champion completes the course in 57’09�. a total 17 seconds faster



Durasek surprises everbody by setting the fastest time of the day. the Croatian national champion is 31 seconds faster than Vandborg. 56’37�. he so far the only one that’s able to beat Reus his intermediate time.



The dutch riders are cutting just short, Lars Boom (formal national champion) is only able to get second place behind surprise Durasek, 30 seconds down. 57’07�



The TT machine of recent years is at it again as he crushes Durasek’s time by a fat 1 and a half minutes. His time of 54’53� is good for an advantage of 1’43� on Durasek



Dutch time trial hope Tom Dumoulin can only get 13th provisionally today with 57’15�. a wooping 2’22� behind Martin. It will take some years for him to beat the German world champion.



Rohan Dennis is officially classified of winning the team time trial so a good result would be nice for him today. He won’t make the time trial double as he’s now 2nd 1’11� behind. 56’04� is his time



Luis León Sánchez get’s beaten by his teammate Clement for 6th place. He’s 1’37� behind Martin with 56’30�




We now get to the top 10, well almost between 13th and 10th place is 31 seconds and 12th and 10th is 4 seconds. Van den Broeck get’s 4th place currently with 12 riders still to go. He’s one of the few people to get within the minute of Martin. 55’51�



Dani Moreno is, like his Katusha teammate, not the greatest on the time trial. He’s 2’38� behind Martin and loses a place to Van den Broeck. 57’31�



Leopold König has been on a roll lately like the entire NetApp team.. he put an amazing job as he finishes provisionally 6th. 1’08� behind Martin and he’s the provisional GC leader now with 56’01�



The public is in shock as is Tony Martin when Oreste Ghita finished. He’s 8 seconds faster than Martin at the finish. He was already faster than Martin at the intermediate check. 54’44� is the new best time.



Intxausti is Valverde’s best helper and currently has a good GC placing himself. He finishes in 7th place 1’17� behind Ghita. 56’17�



Samuel Sánchez is one of the best riders on a downhill and uses that skill to gain time on his opponents. It results in the 4th time at the finish, 1’05� behind Ghita. 55’49�



Fuglsang can on a good day put in a good time trial but today is not one of those days. He’s currently 19th, 1’51� behind Ghita 56’35�



Dan Martin isn’t known for his excellent time trialing skills. It shows in the results as he only finishes 28th. 2’13 back at Ghita 56’57�



Uran is less suited for the time trial then his stronger teammate: Froome. 16th place is all he can get today. 1’36� behind Ghita. 56’20�



Valverde is usually able to get a good result in the time trial. 14th place however isn’t what he’s used to be doing. The first week is catching up to him. 1’31� behind Ghita 56’15�



Horner is this year’s surprise. Of course he did finish 13th in the 2012 Tour and 8th in the 2010 but this is one step higher. He’s in contention for a GT podium against Valverde. He doesn’t beat him today as he finishes in 18th. 1’42� behind Ghita 56’11�



Froome is known to be a great time trialist and looked to be the main competitor of Tony Martin but has he expected Ghita to be the one he has to beat of the stage win. He doesn’t get beat either as he finishes 4th. 26 seconds down on Ghita. 55�10�



Race leader Rodriguez needs to finish within 55’24� to keep the race lead. The spanish climber often came out on the wrong end of a deadline to keep a title. Most notable the 2012 Giro where he lost to Ryder Hesjedal. We see him coming to the line now. It’s going to be close …

Joaquim Rodriguez time

It’s

It’s

55’11�!

He only loses one second to Chris Froome! What an amazing result from the Spaniard.



He didn’t spend a lot of time on the hot-seat unlike Garmin in the Team Time Trial he still won the stage like normal. Oreste Ghita wins in Tarazona. The top 5 in the GC don’t change. Martin, Fuglsang, Sánchez and Intxausti all lose one spot due to Ghita from 10th to 6th. König is 22 seconds behind Intxausti that closes the top 10. Special mention goes to Anthony Roux, he’s in 116th place an exactly 1 hour back on Rodriguez.

Rank	Name	Team	Time
1	Oreste Ghita	Team Argos - Shimano	54'44
2	Tony Martin	Omega Pharma - Quick•Step Cycling Team	+ 9
3	Nicolas Roche	Team Saxo - Tinkoff	+ 25
4	Chris Froome	Sky Procycling	+ 26
5	Joaquím Rodríguez	Katusha Team	+ 27
6	Ion Izagirre	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 1'05
7	Samuel Sánchez	Euskaltel - Euskadi	s.t.
8	Jurgen Van den Broeck	Lotto Belisol	+ 1'07
9	Gorka Verdugo	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 1'08
10	Leopold König	Team NetApp - Endura	+ 1'17

Rank	Name	Team	Time
1	Joaquím Rodríguez	Katusha Team	40h23'33
2	Chris Froome	Sky Procycling	+ 13
3	Chris Horner	RadioShack - Leopard	+ 2'23
4	Alejandro Valverde	Movistar Team	+ 2'36
5	Rigoberto Urán	Sky Procycling	+ 4'51
6	Oreste Ghita	Team Argos - Shimano	+ 7'37
7	Daniel Martin	Garmin - Sharp	+ 8'06
8	Jakob Fuglsang	Astana Pro Team	+ 8'10
9	Samuel Sánchez	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 8'18
10	Beñat Intxausti	Movistar Team	+ 8'33

Rank	Name	Team	Points	General
1	Joaquím Rodríguez	Katusha Team	12	135
2	Alejandro Valverde	Movistar Team	0	122
3	Chris Froome	Sky Procycling	14	97
4	Rigoberto Urán	Sky Procycling	0	87
5	Daniel Martin	Garmin - Sharp	0	56

Rank	Name	Team	Mountain	General
1	Alejandro Valverde	Movistar Team	0	20
2	Chris Froome	Sky Procycling	0	14
3	Ivan Santaromita	BMC Racing Team	0	12
4	Gianluca Brambilla	Omega Pharma - Quick•Step Cycling Team	0	12
5	Jens Voigt	RadioShack - Leopard	0	11

Rank	Team	Time	General Time
1	Euskaltel - Euskadi	2h47'30	+ 8'24 (3)
2	Garmin - Sharp	+ 1'15	+ 28'35 (7)
3	Sky Procycling	+ 1'22	120h24'18 (1)
4	Movistar Team	+ 1'33	+ 6'25 (2)
5	Belkin Pro Cycling Team	+ 2'19	+ 33'27 (9)

Rank	Name	Team	Time	General Time
1	Oreste Ghita	Team Argos - Shimano	54'44	40h31'10 (1)
2	Ion Izagirre	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 1'05	+ 11'16 (5)
3	Rohan Dennis	Garmin - Sharp	+ 1'20	+ 19'50 (9)
4	Moreno Moser	Cannondale Pro Cycling	+ 1'24	+ 27'16 (13)
5	Josef Hintermuller	MTN - Qhubeka	+ 1'36	+ 4'26 (3)

It’s time for the sprinters again after the climbers had their fun again. it’s going to be another battle Argos and Euskaltel for Degenkolb and Lobato. Matthews is likely to be hanging on one of the trains.




Today’s profile fancies a mass sprint and it’s up to Argos and Euskatel to make that happen. to put some pressure of of them they allowed a breakaway of 6 to get away. Schillinger (NetApp), Aramendia (Caja Rural), Rabon (Omega Pharma), Plaza (Movistar), Durasek (Lampre) and Van Niekerk (MTN). They had a four and a half minutes gap to the peloton half through the race.


the breakaway today

It’s wasn’t all easy day today for the GC leaders. Oreste Ghita in the U25 jersey has crashed with Peterson, Kuschynski and Roulston. He quickly got back in contact with the peloton but isn’t never nice to crash


the riders off the bike, never a good sign

The trains have been formed but the breakaway is still in front. They have started making desperate attacks to stay clear from the peloton. Van Niekerk is currently leading a 8 second gap to the rest that has 28 seconds to the peloton. There is still 3,8 km to go.


is the peloton too late?

The breakaway is inside the final 3 km and go early in a desperate attempt to stay clear. Rabon is now the first rider in the race. In the peloton Orica is leading with their train for Matthews, Euskaltel and Argos are not far from each other. Cristobal Riquelme, Swift and Petacchi are in Lobato’s wheel.


The train in pursuit of the breakaway

Gerald Ciolek is the first from the peloton to get up to speed. Matthews and Lobato have gotten a gap to their leadout where Degenkolb hasn’t. the breakaway is still slightly up the road where Plaza is leading.


The breakaway still has a distance

Ciolek keeps going where Cristobal Riquelme is now going after him. The gap to Plaza isn’t enough for him to win today. Matthews still hasn’t passed his leadout yet so a comeback victory is out of the question. Degenkolb seems to be blocked in by Lobato and his leadout (De Backer).



Ciolek is now leading the race with 20 meters to go. Davis is going faster than the German but he can’t pass the German. Matthews is still behind him. Degenkolb is being bloked by Lobato.



Gerald Ciolek wins in Tarragona. His second GT victory, he has waited since 2009 on it. Davis and Cristobal Riquelme are unable to match his acceleration and will get 2nd and 3rd.




Matthews and Degenkolb disappoint today with only 4th and 5th. Breakaway members Durasek and Plaza finish 6th and 8th. Lobato is between them. Rodríguez has continued his charge for the points jersey as he finishes 9th. Bert de Backer is the last rider to finish in the top 10.

Rank	Name	Team	Time
1	Gerald Ciolek	MTN - Qhubeka	3h26'02
2	Allan Davis	Orica - GreenEdge	s.t.
3	Jorge Cristobal Riquelme	Belkin Pro Cycling Team	s.t.
4	Michael Matthews	Orica - GreenEdge	s.t.
5	John Degenkolb	Team Argos - Shimano	s.t.
6	Kristijan Durasek	Lampre - Merida	s.t.
7	Juan José Lobato	Euskaltel - Euskadi	s.t.
8	Rubén Plaza	Movistar Team	s.t.
9	Joaquím Rodríguez	Katusha Team	s.t.
10	Bert De Backer	Team Argos - Shimano	s.t.

Rank	Name	Team	Time
1	Joaquím Rodríguez	Katusha Team	43h49'35
2	Chris Froome	Sky Procycling	+ 13
3	Chris Horner	RadioShack - Leopard	+ 2'23
4	Alejandro Valverde	Movistar Team	+ 2'36
5	Rigoberto Urán	Sky Procycling	+ 4'51
6	Oreste Ghita	Team Argos - Shimano	+ 7'37
7	Daniel Martin	Garmin - Sharp	+ 8'06
8	Jakob Fuglsang	Astana Pro Team	+ 8'10
9	Samuel Sánchez	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 8'18
10	Beñat Intxausti	Movistar Team	+ 8'33

Rank	Name	Team	Points	General
1	Joaquím Rodríguez	Katusha Team	7	142
2	Alejandro Valverde	Movistar Team	1	123
3	Chris Froome	Sky Procycling	0	97
4	Rigoberto Urán	Sky Procycling	0	87
5	John Degenkolb	Team Argos - Shimano	12	57

Rank	Name	Team	Mountain	General
1	Alejandro Valverde	Movistar Team	0	20
2	Chris Froome	Sky Procycling	0	14
3	Ivan Santaromita	BMC Racing Team	0	12
4	Gianluca Brambilla	Omega Pharma - Quick•Step Cycling Team	0	12
5	Jens Voigt	RadioShack - Leopard	0	11

Rank	Team	Time	General Time
1	Orica - GreenEdge	10h18'06	+ 1h06'39 (17)
2	Team Argos - Shimano	s.t.	+ 48'46 (14)
3	Euskaltel - Euskadi	s.t.	+ 8'24 (3)
4	Movistar Team	s.t.	+ 6'25 (2)
5	Sky Procycling	s.t.	130h42'24 (1)

Rank	Name	Team	Time	General Time
1	Jorge Cristobal Riquelme	Belkin Pro Cycling Team	3h26'02	+ 16'00 (8)
2	Michael Matthews	Orica - GreenEdge	s.t.	+ 39'04 (17)
3	John Degenkolb	Team Argos - Shimano	s.t.	+ 34'42 (16)
4	Juan José Lobato	Euskaltel - Euskadi	s.t.	+ 54'29 (28)
5	Oreste Ghita	Team Argos - Shimano	s.t.	43h57'12 (1)