The second to last though mountain stage of this year’s Vuelta. The summit finish today isn’t like the usual Vuelta finishes. Instead of the usual high gradient climbs, today it isn’t the high gradient that makes it though. It’s the length of the end climb that makes it hard.




A breakaway wasted no time today to get away. Luis León Sánchez (Belkin), Stetina (Garmin), Garcia (Caja Rural) made up the initial breakaway. Tiralongo (Astana) joined the three later. The gap they had at the half way point of the stage the gap was up to 9 minutes.


the first charge of the breakaway

With 40 kilometers to go, the gap the breakaway had, is now down to 7 minutes. Sánchez wins the mountain sprint, which puts him at 23 points. He won’t take the mountain jersey today a Bouet has 38 pts and winning the stage today only gives 10 points


Sánchez first at the line, will he be the first at the line on the next summit

The riders for the GC are not waiting on the final climb to put time on the rest and staying in the peloton now will eliminate your chances for a good result. König, Froome, Rodriguez and Valverde are in the first chase group again. Van den Broeck, Martin, Horner, Sánchez, Majka and Fuglsang are in the chase on the first four. The gap to the breakaway meanwhile is 6 minutes.


the chase is on

It turns out that staying in the peloton was the smart move. Team Sky has brought the 10 riders up front for Urán. The gap to the breakaway is now only 5 minutes.


the chase is aborted

Immediately after the chase got caught by the peloton, they went again and made an elite group of 12 riders. Froome, Urán, Rodríguez, Majka, Roche, Sánchez, König, Fuglsang, Martin, Van den Broeck, Valverde and Horner. Bouet tried to salvige his top 10 ranking but don’t get clear from the pelonton now lead by Movistar of Inxtausti. The gap to the breakaway is down to 4 minutes.


the best riders of the race in one group

This news came as a shock to the 4 members of the breakaway. In reaction to this Luis León Sánchez went clear from his companions to try and make a stage win possible.


the spanish stage hunter is trying it

Meanwhile in the chase group, Van den Broeck has attacked and Rodriguez felt it necessary to counter. Froome wouldn’t let Rodriguez get any time. Valverde, Sánchez, König and Majka are a bit slower to respond but don’t have much distance left to cover.



Rodríguez doesn’t seem to have given up on the Vuelta win as the attacks Froome to limit the gap looking at the next few stages are more in his favour. Sánchez, König, Van den Broeck and Valverde are also able to follow.



Sánchez has wasted to much energy in the breakaway and can’t follow the pace of Tiralongo, Garcia and Stetina, a different Sánchez also can’t follow the pace of Froome, Van den Broeck, Valverde and Rodriguez. He is now together with König in the 2nd chase group.



Tiralongo is the first to start accelerating for the finish line, Stetina is right on his wheel but García has a bike length gap.



Tiralongo comfortably wins in Sallent de Gállego, Stetina and García never had a chance to prevent Astana from winning twice in equal amounts of days. LL Sánchez has to worry about his 4th place as Froome has left behind Valverde and Rodriguez who have dropped Van den Broeck.



Froome can’t overtake Sánchez for 4th place but wins 37 seconds on Rodríguez, Valverde and Van den Broeck. Sánchez and König get 9th and 10th.



A rider that we haven’t seen in the chase at all is Chris Horner. He is found in the peloton and loses 4 minutes on Valverde. The fight for 3rd place certainly seems over after today



Horner indeed loses the battle for 3rd place and even loses 4th place to Urán. Van den Broeck keeps moving upwards and is now 6th. Martin is now 7th. König, Fuglsang and Sánchez make up the rest of the top 10.


Astana wins again

Rank	Name	Team	Time
1	Paolo Tiralongo	Astana Pro Team	3h44'37
2	Peter Stetina	Garmin - Sharp	+ 11
3	Marcos García	Caja Rural - Seguros RGA	s.t.
4	Luis León Sánchez	Belkin Pro Cycling Team	+ 1'25
5	Chris Froome	Sky Procycling	+ 1'58
6	Alejandro Valverde	Movistar Team	+ 2'33
7	Joaquím Rodríguez	Katusha Team	s.t.
8	Jurgen Van den Broeck	Lotto Belisol	+ 2'49
9	Samuel Sánchez	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 3'52
10	Leopold König	Team NetApp - Endura	s.t.
11	Rafal Majka	Team Saxo - Tinkoff	+ 4'15
12	Daniel Martin	Garmin - Sharp	+ 4'47
13	Nicolas Roche	Team Saxo - Tinkoff	s.t.
14	Rigoberto Urán	Sky Procycling	+ 5'41
15	Damiano Caruso	Cannondale Pro Cycling	+ 6'47

Rank	Name	Team	Time
1	Chris Froome	Sky Procycling	62h29'25
2	Joaquím Rodríguez	Katusha Team	+ 2'24
3	Alejandro Valverde	Movistar Team	+ 7'28
4	Rigoberto Urán	Sky Procycling	+ 12'32
5	Chris Horner	RadioShack - Leopard	+ 13'31
6	Jurgen Van den Broeck	Lotto Belisol	+ 18'41
7	Daniel Martin	Garmin - Sharp	+ 18'56
8	Leopold König	Team NetApp - Endura	+ 23'00
9	Jakob Fuglsang	Astana Pro Team	+ 23'31
10	Samuel Sánchez	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 24'02

Rank	Name	Team	Points	General
1	Joaquím Rodríguez	Katusha Team	9	162
2	Alejandro Valverde	Movistar Team	10	145
3	Chris Froome	Sky Procycling	12	123
4	Rigoberto Urán	Sky Procycling	2	95
5	Gerald Ciolek	MTN - Qhubeka	0	81

Rank	Name	Team	Mountain	General
1	Maxime Bouet	AG2R La Mondiale	0	38
2	Ion Izagirre	Euskaltel - Euskadi	0	37
3	Ivan Santaromita	BMC Racing Team	0	24
4	Luis León Sánchez	Belkin Pro Cycling Team	9	24
5	Moreno Moser	Cannondale Pro Cycling	0	22

Rank	Team	Time	General Time
1	Garmin - Sharp	11h25'36	+ 40'55 (7)
2	Astana Pro Team	+ 1'49	+ 35'54 (5)
3	Caja Rural - Seguros RGA	+ 2'00	+ 1h35'32 (14)
4	Sky Procycling	+ 2'41	187h13'05 (1)
5	Belkin Pro Cycling Team	+ 3'14	+ 57'35 (10)

Rank	Name	Team	Time	General Time
1	Rafal Majka	Team Saxo - Tinkoff	+ 3h48'52	62h55'21 (1)
2	Damian Owniak	BMC Racing Team	+ 3h51'24	+ 9'48 (3)
3	Oreste Ghita	Team Argos - Shimano	s.t.	+ 2'36 (2)
4	Dominik Nerz	BMC Racing Team	s.t.	+ 26'32 (11)
5	Josef Hintermuller	MTN - Qhubeka	s.t.	+ 9'50 (4)