We finally have a flat finish and Movistar has been proven to be the team to beat so far. There answer from the sprints is José Joaquín Rojas. However to win, he needs to beat the likes of John Degenkolb (Argos), Michael Matthews (Orica), Juan José Lobato (Euskaltel) and Gerald Ciolek (MTN)






Not much riders fancied a breakaway today, only Pierrick Fédrigo (FDJ), Marc Goos (Belkin) and Alexander Wetterhall (NetApp) went for it. It was today’s breakaway.


the breakaway of today

They were given an 8 minute gap to the peloton before Argos, Orica and Euskaltel went to the front of the peloton. The trio in front were given both intermediate sprints thought were Wetterhall was given the first one and Fédrigo the second. It wouldn’t take long to catch the breakaway, Fédrigo was the last one still standing


Fédrigo tries to beat the sprints with less than 5 k to go

Echolons have been spotted! The names that were caught out include the youngsters Guido (MTN) and Birt (NetApp)


the peloton has split in three groups

Orica was the only team that made a sprint train, Degenkolb was right on Matthews tail. Petacchi, Ciolek and Blythe followed in that order. Rojas and Lobato were a bit further back.


Allan Davis has run out of gas, meaning that Matthews has lost his leadout man early. Degenkolb anticipated this and has jumped from his wheel at 800 meters to go. Rojas has made his move earlier and Petacchi seems to be blocked in by the Orica man.


Degenkolb has a small gap towards Ciolek, Rojas seems to be fading a bit. Blythe is also coming up to the front. Lobato doesn’t seem to go for it today, surprising from the spanish champion.


Blythe has passed Rojas and is close to catching Ciolek, does he have enough strength left to catch Degenkolb aswell?


Degenkolb seem to be slowing down as well and Ciolek and Blythe both seem to be able to go for a while. Both BMC and MTN both as stage win goals. is Degenkolb going to prevent both teams from achieving their goals (partially MTN’s goal as they have two stages as goals)


Matthews has charged his way forward and challenges Degenkolb for the stage win today.


Matthews wins in Cáceres, even despite his lead out Davis not being able to help him. He manages to take the win .


the Germans Degenkolb and Ciolek hold on to 2nd and 3rd place. Rodriguez misses out on bonifications seconds by finishing 4th. Lobato comes back to take a surprising 5th place while Tamouridis takes 9th. Good showing from the national champions from Euskaltel. The other national champion in the top 10 is Cristobal Riquelme in 10th place. No Movistar in the top 10 as Valverde was only 11th today


you would almost say finally not a movistar rider winning

Rank	Name	Team	Time
1	Michael Matthews	Orica - GreenEdge	4h16'39
2	John Degenkolb	Team Argos - Shimano	s.t.
3	Gerald Ciolek	MTN - Qhubeka	s.t.
4	Joaquím Rodríguez	Katusha Team	s.t.
5	Juan José Lobato	Euskaltel - Euskadi	s.t.
6	Daryl Impey	Orica - GreenEdge	s.t.
7	Adam Blythe	BMC Racing Team	s.t.
8	Alessandro Petacchi	Omega Pharma - Quick•Step Cycling Team	s.t.
9	Ioannis Tamouridis	Euskaltel - Euskadi	s.t.
10	Jorge Cristobal Riquelme	Belkin Pro Cycling Team	s.t.

Rank	Name	Team	Time
1	Alejandro Valverde	Movistar Team	21h29'03
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	5	72
2	Joaquím Rodríguez	Katusha Team	14	68
3	Rigoberto Urán	Sky Procycling	0	57
4	Daniel Martin	Garmin - Sharp	0	50
5	Jonathan Castroviejo	Movistar Team	0	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	0	6
4	Chris Froome	Sky Procycling	0	4
5	Sebastian Langeveld	Orica - GreenEdge	0	4

Rank	Team	Time	General Time
1	Orica - GreenEdge	12h49'57	+ 10'51 (10)
2	Euskaltel - Euskadi	s.t.	+ 3'31 (3)
3	Team Argos - Shimano	s.t.	+ 13'56 (13)
4	Movistar Team	s.t.	63h21'40 (1)
5	Sky Procycling	s.t.	+ 1'16 (2)

Rank	Name	Team	Time	General Time
1	Michael Matthews	Orica - GreenEdge	4h16'39	+ 9'06 (22)
2	John Degenkolb	Team Argos - Shimano	s.t.	+ 4'34 (11)
3	Juan José Lobato	Euskaltel - Euskadi	s.t.	+ 6'32 (16)
4	Adam Blythe	BMC Racing Team	s.t.	+ 18'15 (37)
5	Jorge Cristobal Riquelme	Belkin Pro Cycling Team	s.t.	+ 1'39 (3)
6	Tom Dumoulin	Team Argos - Shimano	s.t.	+ 5'23 (12)
7	Ion Izagirre	Euskaltel - Euskadi	s.t.	21h32'07 (1)
8	Oreste Ghita	Team Argos - Shimano	s.t.	+ 1'45 (4)
9	Josef Hintermuller	MTN - Qhubeka	s.t.	+ 2'42 (9)
10	Michel Koch	Cannondale Pro Cycling	s.t.	+ 17'03 (33)

Another easy stage so the sprinters get another chance to win a stage before the Movistar-Show is likely to continue. Teams are beginning to get desperate for stages now so hopefully they win so that they can stop sending angry letters to the Vuelta organizer. The finish has virtually no gradient so the punchier sprinters are in disadvantage today in compared to yesterday




Unlike yesterday, a place in the breakaway was highly contested no little then 11 riders including Camaño (NetApp) and Moreno (Caja Rural). however this group was chased hard by Euskaltel, Argos and Orica. The front group broke in several pieces and only Hermans (RadioShack) and Wegmann (Garmin) were left standing. They were later joined by Lander (BMC) after Birt (NetApp) and De Marchi (Cannondale) failed to reach the two. Gap quickly grew to 6 minutes.


the breakaway has some good speed in it today

Before we got in the last 20 kilometers Daryl Impey crashed and isn’t going to get back to the pack, Matthews is without an important leadout. Going into the final 20 kilometers Leopold König crashed and broke the peloton in two pieces. Most notable is the whole NetApp team waiting on König.


Schwarzmann and Birt making pace for Konig

Team NetApp isn’t strong enough to close the gap against the combined strength of Argos and Euskaltel. Meanwhile in the peloton they have almost caught the breakaway and final man of the relay are finishing their job, it’s every team for himself. With a Euskaltel train of Izagirre <- Tamouridis <- Lobato and a Argos train with Preidler <- Ghita <- De Backer <- Degenkolb. Both trains have an additional wagon from a different team, Euskaltel has Cristobal Riquelme (Belkin) and Argos has Matthews (Orica)


the front that’s killing Konig chances for a Top 10

The trains have switched side of the roads but the additional wagons haven’t. it’s now Ghita <- De Backer <- Degenkolb <- Cristobal Riquelme against Izagirre <- Tamouridis <- Lobato <- Matthews. And for some reason Chris Froome has attached to the Argos train.


the trains

Lobato was the first to go and Degenkolb is now in his wheel having abandoned De Backer’s wheel.



It’s Lobato vs Degenkolb with Ciolek looking to take third.



Is Valverde gonna to take revenge for someone from his team winning yesterday. The red jersey is coming up fast. The gap to Degenkolb is quite large though.



It’s Degenkolb wins quite comfortable. The rest of the podoim is quite surprising as both Valverde and Rodriguez take the final podium places



The rest of the top 10 consist of 4th Lobato, 5th Ciolek, 6th Matthews, 7th Sánchez, 8th Urán, 9th Cristobal Riquelme, 10th is Robert (Lotto). Leopold König loses 4’58� in end. A bad day for them.

Rank	Name	Team	Time
1	John Degenkolb	Team Argos - Shimano	4h15'52
2	Alejandro Valverde	Movistar Team	s.t.
3	Joaquím Rodríguez	Katusha Team	s.t.
4	Juan José Lobato	Euskaltel - Euskadi	s.t.
5	Gerald Ciolek	MTN - Qhubeka	s.t.
6	Michael Matthews	Orica - GreenEdge	s.t.
7	Samuel Sánchez	Euskaltel - Euskadi	s.t.
8	Rigoberto Urán	Sky Procycling	s.t.
9	Jorge Cristobal Riquelme	Belkin Pro Cycling Team	s.t.
10	Frederique Robert	Lotto Belisol	s.t.

Rank	Name	Team	Time
1	Alejandro Valverde	Movistar Team	25h44'49
2	Daniel Martin	Garmin - Sharp	+ 1'17
3	Chris Horner	RadioShack - Leopard	+ 1'52
4	Rigoberto Urán	Sky Procycling	+ 1'56
5	Joaquím Rodríguez	Katusha Team	+ 2'03

Rank	Name	Team	Points	General
1	Alejandro Valverde	Movistar Team	20	92
2	Joaquím Rodríguez	Katusha Team	16	84
3	Rigoberto Urán	Sky Procycling	8	65
4	Daniel Martin	Garmin - Sharp	0	50
5	Jonathan Castroviejo	Movistar Team	0	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	0	6
4	Chris Froome	Sky Procycling	0	4
5	Sebastian Langeveld	Orica - GreenEdge	0	4

Rank	Team	Time	General Time
1	Euskaltel - Euskadi	12h47'36	+ 3'31 (3)
2	Team Argos - Shimano	s.t.	+ 13'56 (12)
3	Movistar Team	s.t.	76h09'16 (1)
4	Katusha Team	s.t.	+ 4'03 (4)
5	Sky Procycling	s.t.	+ 1'16 (2)

Rank	Name	Team	Time	General Time
1	John Degenkolb	Team Argos - Shimano	4h15'52	+ 4'24 (10)
2	Juan José Lobato	Euskaltel - Euskadi	s.t.	+ 6'32 (13)
3	Michael Matthews	Orica - GreenEdge	s.t.	+ 9'06 (16)
4	Jorge Cristobal Riquelme	Belkin Pro Cycling Team	s.t.	+ 1'39 (3)
5	Frederique Robert	Lotto Belisol	s.t.	+ 23'45 (39)