The queen's stage of this Vuelta: 175 kilometres between Gi'jon and Cotobello, including 3 1st category climbs. After 97 kilometres awaits the summit of the Alto de San Lorenzo (10.3km at 8.6%), after 136 kilometres the summit of the Puerto de la Cobertoria (9.1km at 7.8%) and finally the climb to the summit of the Cotobello (11.7km at 6.2%). This makes for a total of 4169 height metres.
78km to go
2 riders manage to attack out of the peloton, after some earlier breakaways were succesfully chased down. Bruno Pires (Saxo Bank), with already 1 stage win in his pocket, and Bauke Mollema (BMC), have already climbed the first climb of the day, the Alto de San Lorenzo and lead the peloton by 5'30.
50km to go
In the valley between the San Lorenzo and the Puerto de la Cobertoria, Ezequiel Mosquera goes in the counter attack. But he ha sto make up for 4'48 to the 2 leaders and that is probably too much. The peloton follows at 5'48.
40km to go
Bauke Mollema, having a pretty disappointing Vuelta so far, is the better climber of the 2 leaders and he leaves his Portuguese breakaway buddie behind just over 1 kilometre before the summit of the Cobertoria.
Mosquera manages to decrease the margin in the climb by 2 minutes and follows at 2'30. The peloton has taken it very slowly and is 7'22 behind.
14km to go
The peloton (46 riders) finally has increased the pace, and still in the valley before the foot of the Cotobello, the margin to Mollema is 6 minutes. GC's number 7 Carlos Barredo attacks, and Daniel Navarro (GC 15) counters. But then also Vincenzo Nibali counters! This time, Andy Schleck jumps upon the wheel of the Italian.
And the ascend of the Cotobello even has to begin....
8km to go
Because of the early attack, the peloton is shattered into many groups. Antón. F. Schleck, Frank, Roche, Barredo and Navarro form the first chasing group. Mollema still leads, with Mosquera and Pires 1'10 behind him. The group of GC-contenders follows at 4'21.
Then, Igor Antón attacks. Knowing that Antón is the biggest opponent for the 2nd place in the GC, Andy immediately counters. He's having a great day (daily form +5 ), and can easily follow Antóns acceleration.
6km to go
But Antón can't keep the high pace for a long time, and the others rejoin them. As the Basque is showing some signs of weakness, Andy attacks. Brother Fränk and, of course, Nibali can follow him. This all happens 3'11 behind Mollema.
4km to go
Nibali takes over the attack, and looks over his shoulder after hundred metres. There he sees 2 Luxembourg faces, and that of Pires, who has been caught. The group Antón follows at 40 seconds.
2km to go
I really don't know how he does it, but within 400 metres, Anton closes a 40 second gap......
Resting for a little while, to regain his energy, Andy attacks again. With 2km to go, and 2'16 behind Mollema, the stage win is gone, but the goal is to drop Antón.
Finish
Meanwhile, Bauke Mollema gives his BMC-team the 3rd stage win so far in this Vuelta, after a 41km solo ride. It's the first win of the season for him, finally showing why BMC offered him a highly payed contract! Mosquera finishes in 2nd at 1'28, and the waiting starts for the GC-contenders.
Although Andy creates a small gap after his attack, Vincenzo Nibaly rejoins him pretty easily. No doubt who is the strongest rider in this Vuelta! But knowing that our Luxembourg leader needs the 8 bonus seconds given at the finish for the 3rd place, he lets him take them. So 3rd place for Andy and 4th for Nibali at 1'56. Fränk Schleck and Antón follow at 2'07, what means Andy takes back 19 seconds.
Word from the DS
So, this was the maximum result for today. Andy had great legs all day long, and he showed it by attacking twice. But Nibali is too strong, and nobody will question that. The battle for 2nd place is open, with the first step tomorrow's 46km flat ITT.
46 kilometres with start and finish in Peñafiel, in the region of Castilla y León, will bring some new changes in the GC. This is a route for the guys that can ride a big gear, not for the climbers.
The best time so far is set by the Italian TT-champion Adriano Malori, who needs 1h0619 for the 46 kilometres. The time will last pretty long, but he is pushed out of the hot seat by a Norwegian guy. Who else than Edvald Boasson Hagen beats the time set by Malori, and sets the new time to beat at 1h05'06.
Radio Shack's Bradley Wiggins rides a good ITT, but can't be faster than EBH. 2nd place so far for Wiggo at '25.
The focus switches to the GC-Top 4. Omega Pharma's Fränk Schleck rides one hell of a ITT. He sets the 12th (!) time so far, 1'48 behind Hagen. This for sure is a huge surprise!
Andy Schleck fears this day a bit, knowing that with his decreasing form, he will loose time to Nibali. Consequently, he starts pretty slow and sets the 61st time at the 1st split.
Igor Antón hears from his DS, that he is going faster than his rival for the 2nd place in the GC. AT the split time, he is already 40 seconds faster, 35th time so far.
This guy is flying! Vincenzo Nibali is even '10 faster than Hagen, halfway the route!
Split times first sector:
1. V. Nibali 31'22; 2. E.B. Hagen +10; 3. B. Wiggins +23; 4. A. Talansky +25; 5. C. Barredo +32; 15. F. Schleck +1'10; 35. I. Antón +1'38; 61. A. Schleck + 2'18.
But Igor Antón has started too fast, and when he gets passed by Nibali, who started 2 minutes behind him, his morale is totally knocked down and collapses... He finishes 3'10 behind the winner in 35th time.
Andy Schleck has found a better rhythm after the halfway point, and starts to go faster and faster. He eventually finishes in the 16th time at 2'16 (yep, '3 slower than the old brother), meaning he s '54 faster than Antón and jumps to the 2nd place in the GC.
But this guy is way too dominant! Vincenzo Nibali sets the fastest time, 1h04'41, and wins the ITT. The GC-win must be safe now!
Word from the DS
Really stoked with Andy's performance today! The 2nd half of the route was the fastest of all riders (so next time, start a bit faster ). The goal now is to defend the 2nd place, th emargin is '50. But with the Bola del Mundo coming up (and 3 flat stages), that won't be easy!
Stage 18 is the first of 2 flat stages, before all hell breaks loose at the Bola del Mundo. 151 kilometres from Valladolid to Salamanca.
25km to go
With our sprints getting totally out of form (below 80), we try to be in the BOTD. And Sep Vanmarcke is the one to do it today, and manages to do it. Together with Vantomme, van Winden, C. Meyer, Mori, Malori, Williams, V. Iglinskiy, Delage, Krivtsov and Meersman, he creates a maximum margin of 5'30.
When Team Sky and Lotto-Belisol start to ride a high pace for their sprinters Cavendish and Hagen, the margin drops rapidly. With 25km to go, it is only 1'28, so a mass sprint looks inevitable. The pace in the BOTD isn't high enough as most riders don't want to work for the others. So Vanmarcke, who has saved his energy for the last 15km, attacks with 25km to go.
7km to go
Together with Delage and Krivtsov, Vanmarcke forms the new leading group. But they don't stand a chance against the raging peloton. And with 7km to go, already in the streets of Salamanca, their adventure is over.
Meanwhile, Marcel Kittel has managed to get the wheel of Mark Cavendish.
Finish
Some small hills in the last 7 kilometres are too much for Kittel in this bad form. The German looses the wheel of Cavendish and can forget a good result.
As a few times before, Edvald Boasson Hagen is being launched perfectly by his lead out man Matthew Goss. He creates a margin of a few bike lengths. Jurgen Roelandts (Sony Ericsson) is in 2nd place, with Mark Cavendish storming to the front, with a higher speed as the first 2. But he's blocked a bit by Roelandts (well, Roelandts stayed on his line, and Cav choose the wrong side). So it's the 2nd stage win this Vuelta for Boasson Hagen,n. Cav takes the 2nd place, Roelandts the 3rd and Andy Schleck the 4th place, again beating sprinters as Eisel, Greipel, Rojas and friends......
Word from the DS
Great work by Vanmarcke. He was the strongest of the BOTD, but the peloton was fixed on a mass sprint. And Andy is about to win the points-jersey, what is a sponsor goal.
And another flat stage: 199 kilometres from Piedrahita to Toledo.
60km to go
Hey, is that Sep Vanmarcke who is in the BOTD for the 2nd day in a row? Yep, it is! Together with his 2 countrymen Nick Nuyens and Gianni Meersman and the Frenchie Steve Houanard, he atacked out of the peloton after only 15 kilometres. With 60km to go, the margin is 10 minutes and things look good!
40km to go
Nick Nuyens attacks with 40km to go, with the margin to the peloton still 10 minutes. Vanmarcke and Houanard can follow him, but Meersman can't.
3km to go
Also Houanard gets dropped and the 2 Belgians are preparing for the mass sprint. Well, they think they do, as shockingly, the peloton regains 9 minutes in 37 kilometres and is only '58 behind them....
1km to go
And within 2 kilometres, they loose the last minute left. Of course.........
Points
1 Andy SchleckMonster Energy - Subway 176
2 Edvald Boasson Hagen Lotto - Belisol 158
3 Vincenzo Nibali Radio Shack - Nissan 150
4 Mark Cavendish Sky ProCycling 141
5 Igor Antón Euskaltel - Euskadi 114
KOTM
1
Andy Schleck
Monster Energy - Subway
85
2
Igor Antón
Euskaltel - Euskadi
64
3
Vincenzo Nibali
Radio Shack - Nissan
59
4
Bruno Pires
Saxo Bank SunGard
56
5
Bauke Mollema
BMC Racing Team
52
Today's winner
Word from the DS
How is it possible that a peloton can win 10 minutes within 40 kilometres against 2 strong riders as Nuyens and Vanmarcke???? Unbelievable.... So Sep is very disappointed, as he was the strongest of the 2.
But back to business: tomorrow the Bola del Mundo.
@ Schleck96: Hey, how do you know about my tactic?
@ Ian Butler: yep, it was.....
@ TimoCycling: Thanks, hope I can defend the 2nd place there,
@ Miguel98: I really don't know. Probably because of the long breakaway (over 175km) and the fact that it was already the 19th stage, as well as there were only 2 riders left in the break....
The penultimate stage of this Vuelta will be the decisive one. Not for the overall win, but for the 2nd place. After the first ascend of the Puerto de Navacerrada, the riders will have to climb it again, and continue with 3 more kilometres to the Bola del Mundo, over concrete roads with a max gradient of 20%.
48km to go
With 1 stage already won, and 2 more by his BMC-teammates, Bauke Mollemas tries to win another one. He arrives solo at the Puerto de Navacerrada, with 48km to go.
Pavel Brutt (Rabobank) and Ezequiel Mosquera (Caja Rural) follow at 2'06, Stefan Denifl (Red Bull) at 2'39 and the peloton at 6'22.
12km to go
As often before, the non-podium candidates are the first riders to attack on the final climb. Matthias Frank (Red Bull, GC 7) is the first to do it, followed by Carlos Barredo (Movistar, GC 6), Thomas Voeckler (Europcar) and Samuel Sanchez (Lampre, GC 5). The peloton follows shortly behind them. This all happens more than 4'30 behind Mollema and Mosquera & Brutt, who have closed the gap to the Dutch climber.
10km to go
The moment that the attackers get caught, Vincenzo Nibali attacks. He must feel hungry for a 3rd stage win, as he doesn't need to attack to win the GC. Andy Schleck has placed himself at the wrong side of the road, and isn't able to counter, as he first needs to find a way through the likes of Nicholas Roche, Daniel Navarro and Thomas Rohregger.
6km to go Andy simply needs to much time to fins himself a free way. Consequently, he has to close a gap of 51 seconds to a group with Nibali, Fränk Schleck, Sánchez and... Igor Antón. Yes, 50 seconds, meaning he is in virtual GC 3rd now by 1 second....
This all happens 2'32 (group Nibali) behind Mosquera and Mollema, who have dropped Brutt.
2km to go
The Dutch climber and the rehabilitated former dope-sinner finished the ascend of the Puerto de Navacerradas and have started the final 3km to the Bola del Mundo. The group Nibali is closing fast, only 1'19 behind them. Andy follows at '41 from Antón (who's riding in the group Nibali). But with the steep part to go, hasn't he used too much energy?
1km to go
Within 1 kilometre, Nibali and F. Schleck have closed the gap to Mollema and Mosquera. Already under the flamme rouge, Antón is getting dropped and follows at '31. Sammy Sánchez and Andy follow at 1'19. This means that Antón has gained 8 seconds aga8n, and is only 3 seconds away from virtual GC 2nd....
Finish
Surprisingly, Ezequiel Mosquera starts the sprint of the leading group of 4. Desperately looking for the stage win, he wants to make it a long sprint. But unfortunately for him, Vincenzo Nibali doesn't want to give him the same "present" as in 2010, when Mosquera took the stage win at the Bola del Mundo. So Nibali takes the stage win, his 3rd in this Giro. Mosquera finishes in 2nd, F. Schleck in 3rd at '12, Mollema in 4th at '30 and Antón in 5th at '42. The clock starts ticking for Andy, who has to finish within 1'32....
1'10.... 1'15.... 1'20.... 1'25.... 1'30.... 1'32.... 1'35 later than Nibali, Andy Schleck crosses the finish line. This means, he drops to 3rd place in the GC. But he has given all he had in him left after a very long and hard season, needing some oxygen to recover a bit.
Word from the DS
Well, that's it... Not the 2nd, but the 3rd place in the GC. The combination of the Tour and the Vuelta, and the obligations that came with winning the Tour have proven to be to exhausting for Andy. Still, we are proud of him, that in his last year for the team, he gets another GT-podium, and becomes the winner of the KOTM- and (probably) the points-jersey.
), and can easily follow Antóns acceleration.
Bauke Mollema
Ezequiel Mosquera
Vincenzo Nibali
Matthias Frank
Nicolas Roche
Mark Cavendish
Edvald Boasson Hagen
Bruno Pires
Andrew Talansky
Jürgen Roelandts
Bernhard Eisel
André Greipel
Arnold Jeanneson
Pavel Brutt
