The only real difficulty today is the Alto del Mirador de Ezaro that’s in the last quarter of the race. That being said it should also be noteworthy that the almost the whole stage is going up and down all day. The small bump before the finish could also be a deciding factor in today’s stage. Are the others teams able to stop the streak that Movistar are setting early?






Today the race started under beautiful weather and an attack from Martínez (Euskaltel) and Adam Hansen (Lotto). Tiralongo (Astana) and Santaromita (BMC) followed them . even despite a quickly gained minute from the peloton, Martinez and Santaromita weren’t happy with the other two. They realized that if they keep going at it like this nothing will result of it. Also there are several reports of crashes today, hopefully the peloton are saved from this in the final kilometers, especially Saxo Bank seems victim of the crashes as both Noval and Sutherland crashed on separate occasions


first break attempt makes it work

The break were only given 8 minutes and that gap was down to two minutes when the break was almost on top of the Alto del Mirador de Ezaro were Martínez and Santamorita repeat what they tried before by pulling away from the other two. The peloton was also split in many groups on the same climb


a good view on how steep the Mirador actually is

There were only 44 guys in the peloton big and most of the leaders were in there. in the second group three teams took the front, Belkin, BMC and AG2R.
Belkin for Sánchez, Ten Dam and Cristobel Riquelme and BMC for Owniak, AG2R for Riblon. The gap was 2’15�


the gap that needed to be closed by BMC, Belkin and AG2R

the break was caught and at the same moment Rigoberto Urán, Chris Horner and Daniel Martin have made a move. The gap to group Ten Dam/Owniak/Riblon is up to 3’26�


Urán goes on the attack, with Horner and Martin in pursuit

Another group has dropped off and containes white jersey wearer Rafal Majka and Oriste Ghita because of the pace set Movistar to catch the trio ahead. It’s three against the rest of the Movistar team left as they did catch the trio ahead. The gap to Group Ten Dam/Owniak/Riblin has stabilized at 3’21�


the gap at 5 k to go for Group Majka

They aren’t coming back to the leaders where Intxausti is the first to sprint as lead-out for Valverde, Martin is still infront of the red jersey but he’s coming up fast.


the finish is close

It’s going to be Movistar again unless Martin has another acceleration in store for him. Valverde is just too good.


the final corner

It’s Valverde easily again, if the finish was 200 meters futher Rodríguez would have broken the Movistar streak. However he’s have to settle for 3rd as Urán get’s second. Daniel Martin finishes 4th, Jurgen van den Broeck also surprised people with a 5th place. König shows himself by finishing 8th and Froome is 9th.


Plaza has already seen it, Movistar wins another stage

Even despite the second group is filled with RadioShack and Garmin riders, they aren’t the first losers of the day, as both leaders finish 13th and 3rd, respectively. The real losers in this group are Ghita (Argos) and Majka (Saxo)


RadioShack and Garmin everywere

It could be worse though for them, demonstrated by Belkin and BMC. They both lose around 2’16� with Sánchez, Nerz, Frank, Ten Dam, Owniak. Also in this group is Birt (NetApp)


you can almost read the disappointment on the riders faces

In the new GC not much changed, Fuglsang and Rodriguez switched places thanks to the bonifications seconds. Inxausti, Sánchez and Izagirre are now in the top 10 due to Majka, Stetina and Dennis falling out of it. They are now 17th, 18th and 19th in the same order. The first Belkin rider is still Sánchez and he’s dropped down to 25th place and the first BMC rider is now 30th. Only one jersey changed shoulders. Ion Izagirre takes Majka’s young riders jersey


the usual sight from the Vuelta so far

Rank	Name	Team	Time
1	Alejandro Valverde	Movistar Team	4h28'32
2	Rigoberto Urán	Sky Procycling	s.t.
3	Joaquím Rodríguez	Katusha Team	s.t.
4	Daniel Martin	Garmin - Sharp	s.t.
5	Jurgen Van den Broeck	Lotto Belisol	s.t.
6	Beñat Intxausti	Movistar Team	s.t.
7	Daniel Moreno	Katusha Team	s.t.
8	Leopold König	Team NetApp - Endura	s.t.
9	Chris Froome	Sky Procycling	s.t.
10	Ion Izagirre	Euskaltel - Euskadi	s.t.

Rank	Name	Team	Time
1	Alejandro Valverde	Movistar Team	13h03'25
2	Daniel Martin	Garmin - Sharp	+ 1'11
3	Chris Horner	RadioShack - Leopard	+ 1'46
4	Rigoberto Urán	Sky Procycling	+ 1'50
5	Joaquím Rodríguez	Katusha Team	+ 2'07
6	Jakob Fuglsang	Astana Pro Team	+ 2'10
7	Chris Froome	Sky Procycling	+ 2'15
8	Beñat Intxausti	Movistar Team	+ 2'51
9	Samuel Sánchez	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 3'04
10	Ion Izagirre	Euskaltel - Euskadi	s.t.

Rank	Name	Team	Points	General
1	Alejandro Valverde	Movistar Team	25	59
2	Rigoberto Urán	Sky Procycling	20	45
3	Daniel Martin	Garmin - Sharp	14	40
4	Joaquím Rodríguez	Katusha Team	16	34
5	Jonathan Castroviejo	Movistar Team	0	30

Rank	Name	Team	Mountain	General
1	Alejandro Valverde	Movistar Team	0	10
2	Jakob Fuglsang	Astana Pro Team	0	6
3	Chris Froome	Sky Procycling	0	4
4	Amets Txurruka	Caja Rural - Seguros RGA	0	3
5	Jonathan Castroviejo	Movistar Team	0	3

Rank	Team	Time	General Time
1	Movistar Team	13h25'36	38h04'46 (1)
2	Sky Procycling	s.t.	+ 1'16 (2)
3	Euskaltel - Euskadi	s.t.	+ 3'31 (3)
4	Katusha Team	+ 1'25	+ 4'03 (4)
5	RadioShack - Leopard	+ 2'50	+ 9'48 (9)

Rank	Name	Team	Time	General Time
1	Ion Izagirre	Euskaltel - Euskadi	4h28'32	13h06'29 (1)
2	Juan José Lobato	Euskaltel - Euskadi	s.t.	+ 2'56 (11)
3	Luke Rowe	Sky Procycling	s.t.	+ 3'26 (12)
4	George Bennett	RadioShack - Leopard	+ 1'25	+ 4'16 (13)
5	Oreste Ghita	Team Argos - Shimano	s.t.	+ 1'45 (6)

Yesterday, de deciding factor was at the end, this time it’s earlier in the race. With an ascent of the Alto de Covelo before the halfpoint the sprinters are likely to not be in the peloton anymore, some daring riders could try to go on the Alto del Pademelo. Good descenders could potentially take a little time today.





The breakaway was contested hard in today’s pouring rain. Busche (RadioShack), Arroyo (Caja Rural) and Brambilla (Omega Pharma) were the first to go on the attack. Geniez (FDJ) and Pardilla (MTN) also tried later. When those 5 were pulled back, Casar (FDJ), Brambilla and Arroyo went again. this time they were followed by Astarloza (Euskaltel) but that only lead by the peloton closing the gap again. Langeveld (Orica) restarted the whole game and got Astarloza, Piedra (Caja Rural), Pardilla, Casar and Brambilla got a decent gap. However not everybody made it into the official break of the day. Astarloza, Piedra, Pardilla didn’t make the cut meaning that Casar, Brambilla and Langeveld were today’s breakaway. A eight minute gap was all they got.


the break of the day

A terrible crash happened on the descent when Bert de Backer (Argos) crashed and took Jens Mouris (Orica) and Stauff (MTN) with him. Hopefully they aren’t to hurt.


the De Rijke rider shows no compassion for the crashed riders

At the foot of the Alto del Padomelo the gap to the breakaway was down to 2’40� and Garmin and RadioShack have taken control of the peloton again after Movistar did what they needed to do on the easy part. The gap was only reduced to 2’19� though, with 30 km to go, are we going to see a mass sprint for the finish. Not many riders have been dropped on the climbs today.


the points jersey is more important today then the red jersey?

Daniel Martin isn’t just going to roll over the finish today. He tries to make a gap and nobody is able to follow. He catches the breakaway easily. We also see Cristobal Riquelme (Belkin), Ciolek (MTN) and Degenkolb (Argos) make it to the front.


Dan The Man showing why people like him

Martin still has a small gap to the peloton while Degenkolb and the other sprinters have set themselves up behind Urán


Martin in the upper-left and Degenkolb in the bottom-right

Rodriguez has better placed himself then the sprinters and leads the peloton on a charge against the now exhausted Daniel Martin.


The punchy Purito is punchy

Rodriguez still leads but the Movistar duo of Intxausti and Castroviejo are coming up fast. Froome is also coming fast too but he needs to get around Daniel Martin if he wants to win.



Rodriguez or Intxausti?



It’s Intxausti that wins in Lago de Sanabria, making it 4 in a row for Movistar!


the usual, someone from Movistar winning

Rodriguez has to be disappointed with second place, it’s the closest any non-Movistar riders has gotten to winning an individual stage. Castroviejo is 3rd. Sky duo Froome and Urán earn 4th and 5th. Martin only get’s 6th. Two Movistar riders follow with the names Rojas and Valverde in 7th and 8th. Voigt took 9th place and König earn points again for NetApp with a 10th place. The General doesn’t change except Sánchez and Izagirre change places.


Movistar’s great Vuelta continues

Rank	Name	Team	Time
1	Beñat Intxausti	Movistar Team	4h08'59
2	Joaquím Rodríguez	Katusha Team	s.t.
3	Jonathan Castroviejo	Movistar Team	s.t.
4	Chris Froome	Sky Procycling	s.t.
5	Rigoberto Urán	Sky Procycling	s.t.
6	Daniel Martin	Garmin - Sharp	s.t.
7	José Joaquín Rojas	Movistar Team	s.t.
8	Alejandro Valverde	Movistar Team	s.t.
9	Jens Voigt	RadioShack - Leopard	s.t.
10	Leopold König	Team NetApp - Endura	s.t.

Rank	Name	Team	Time
1	Alejandro Valverde	Movistar Team	17h12'24
2	Daniel Martin	Garmin - Sharp	+ 1'11
3	Chris Horner	RadioShack - Leopard	+ 1'46
4	Rigoberto Urán	Sky Procycling	+ 1'50
5	Joaquím Rodríguez	Katusha Team	+ 2'01
6	Jakob Fuglsang	Astana Pro Team	+ 2'10
7	Chris Froome	Sky Procycling	+ 2'15
8	Beñat Intxausti	Movistar Team	+ 2'41
9	Samuel Sánchez	Euskaltel - Euskadi	+ 3'04
10	Ion Izagirre	Euskaltel - Euskadi	s.t.

Rank	Name	Team	Points	General
1	Alejandro Valverde	Movistar Team	8	67
2	Rigoberto Urán	Sky Procycling	12	57
3	Joaquím Rodríguez	Katusha Team	20	54
4	Daniel Martin	Garmin - Sharp	10	50
5	Jonathan Castroviejo	Movistar Team	16	46

Rank	Name	Team	Mountain	General
1	Alejandro Valverde	Movistar Team	0	10
2	Jakob Fuglsang	Astana Pro Team	0	6
3	Sandy Casar	FDJ.fr	6	6
4	Chris Froome	Sky Procycling	0	4
5	Sebastian Langeveld	Orica - GreenEdge	4	4

Rank	Team	Time	General Time
1	Movistar Team	12h26'57	50h31'43 (1)
2	Sky Procycling	s.t.	+ 1'16 (2)
5	Euskaltel - Euskadi	s.t.	+ 3'31 (3)
3	Katusha Team	s.t.	+ 4'03 (4)
9	Garmin - Sharp	s.t.	+ 4'34 (5)

Rank	Name	Team	Time	General Time
3	Ion Izagirre	Euskaltel - Euskadi	s.t.	17h15'28 (1)
5	Rafal Majka	Team Saxo - Tinkoff	s.t.	+ 37 (2)
13	Rohan Dennis	Garmin - Sharp	s.t.	+ 43 (3)
17	Ramunas Navardauskas	Garmin - Sharp	s.t.	+ 43 (4)
1	Jorge Cristobal Riquelme	Belkin Pro Cycling Team	4h08'59	+ 1'39 (5)