The final stage of this year’s race should be a straightforward affair ending in a sprint. However, we had a tough climb to finish the day yesterday, so there’ll be more than one rider with heavy legs.
Might we see an adventurer swashbuckle his way to a stage win? Might we even see a someone like Ricco put in a final kamikaze attack?
We join today’s stage with just over 45km remaining. This lead group of seven have 3’35” on the pack. Present in the escape are Cardoso Espanola (Yamaha), Burke (YouTube), Mazur (LEGO), Talbott (BIMBO), Machado (Benfica), Kannemeyer (Pirelli) and Kreutzfeldt (UniCredit).
IKEA are at the front of the pack and they keep this break in good range in expectation for the teams with sprinters to take things over in the closing stages.
40km to go and the lead is still going out – 4’02” now. Tinkoff and Petronas now move up to take over chasing duties.
20km to go now and the chasers have the break in sight on these long straight roads.
The last throw of the dice for the break is as we move inside the last 15km.
Machado and Kannemeyer appear to be the strongest but with less than a minute back to the charging pack they appear to have very little chance now.
There’s a crash at the back of the pack as the peloton speeds forward. Would you believe Cadel Evans is down again? What a race he has had.
6km to go and Machado and Kannemeyer are still holding off the bunch. 35” is the advantage. Barcadi are at the front now and working hard for Nazon. This may have looked pan flat but it is proving to be a testing run in with quite a bit of up and down.
Inside the final 3km and the two men out front are finally caught. It’s a bit of a mess behind them with no one really having got anything organized.
Hansen (Red Bull) is about to pass the leaders – Aramendia is the LEGO rider trying to go with him on the right. Bragazzi and Andersen are the UniCredit riders. Ortega is the Santander rider moving up on the left.
Inside the final 1km now and it looks as if Hansen may have the legs to take this one from the front. Hochmann (LEGO) is leading the charging sprinters and they all have Hansen in their sights.
They all run out of road though and the Red Bull man takes a surprise win for his team. Brown sprints to second place and the green jersey, while Andersen holds on for a surprise third. Rein Taaramäe is safe in the pack and wins the Vuelta a Burgos.
