Eight riders finished together in the lead yesterday, one of those is likely you would think to take the overall victory in the Vuelta Chihuahua International. They will need to be good today and tomorrow in the big two stages in this years race.
Today’s parcours sees four key sections of climbing, the first two are likely for KoM point grabbers and the third section is surely the most important of the race. Finally the riders have a short uphill section at the finish into Creel which gives the greatest opportunity for time gaps.
First then the early sections which seem very much for KoM men, five men seem to be in that fight this is the current position.
Betencourt leads with 48 points, then Mercado on 37, Ortega on 35 and finally Zwizanski and Craven together on 31 points. The leader however allows his rivals to ease up to his tally by not competing for the first three classified climbs.
Craven, Ortega, Mercado and Zwizanski battle for KoM points
The climbs are classified as 3rd, 2nd and 4th category and it is Santander’s Ortega who does the best out of them gaining 15 points to overtake Betencourt as the provisional KoM leader.
Ortega 50, Betencourt 48, Craven/Mercado 47 and Zwizanski 40 is the new revised standings. We must not forget the sprints here, which now start to have some significance as Damien Martinez managed to stick with the GC men yesterday. The Quiksilver Cuban is now a genuine threat, though he may struggle a bit more today.
Damian Martinez scores well and takes time bonuses at the sprints
The Cuban takes a total of 10 points and 10 bonus seconds this moves him up to just 12 seconds behind Lopez Garcia.
So we have got those early sections out of the way, now we are into the last 80km of the stage and that nasty lumpy section with some tough steep sections in.
Chihuahua’s GC destiny about to be decided
Hernendez (Santander) current 17th at 4.17 on GC and second place remember on stage 1, surprises the camaras and slips away. Bimbo Nutella launch a dual pursuit with Vitor Rodrigues, out of sorts yesterday, going with KoM hunter Dan Craven, they are joined by Red Bull youngster Adam Semple.
Bimbo Nutella launch double move
Rodrigues on loan from Lipton Iced Tea has had an interesting season, he has looked up there with some of the best climbers at his best. Craven is better known as a time trial man and took the early season Tour of Wellington and a string of good results in races that revolve around the test against the clock. These two drop young Semple, one of Red Bull’s two young developing Australians on their multinational team. This is the big move for Craven, he grabs second place at the first two classified climbs – the first being bizarrely rated as 1st category the second as 3rd.
Rodrigues leaves his teammate behind for the final one (a 2nd category) but Craven still gets third there. Knowing now he has the KoM jersey well and truly in the bag for the race.
Craven moves onto 71 KoM points well clear of his rivals now
This last climb which keeps going up after the classification point, proves to be the moment the GC contenders go on the rampage. Samwel, another Bimbo Nutella rider, leads the charge ahead of Delgado, Lopez Garcia, Marquez and Kilun.
Five GC favourites attack over last climb
Rafael Valls also bridges across to the favourites and as they join Rodrigues and Hernandez up front we have a lead group of eight. Once again with all the teams represented it looks good here for these eight. Lopez Garcia (1st), Samwel (2nd), Kilun (3rd), Valls (5th), Delgado (6th) and Marquez (7th) are the GC men, though Rodrigues and Hernandez could move up quite substantially. Quiksilver have lost Martinez and Mercado though who are back in the group behind.
Actually scrub that the group behind is quite splintered with Red Bull and Bimbo Nutella again working together distancing Benfica and Quiksilver riders.
Front group of eight forms
The eight up front do not work together brilliantly, the temptation really is to leave the Santander riders to do most of the work. The key thing to remember is that TT tomorrow, on paper that one looks unpredictable – some of the riders will surely look to gamble on the final ascent today instead. With 12 to go these eight have about 1.20 on the group behind with Rodas, Mercado and Camano in. The final climb see’s Roman Kilun who has surprised most with his climbing ability attack as soon as we go up this last 4.5km climb.
Kilun decides to try and put some distance into more punchy rivals
The rest are marking each other a little here and the plucky American veteran keeps pressing on building quite the advantage.
3km to go Kilun has a good gap
Behind these seven the Rodas/Camano/Mercado group are closing fast, but Lopez Garcia now goes hard with Marquez and Samwel.
Lopez Garcia has waited for this moment , only two others can go with him
On the uphill gaps can open quite quickly and close also, as Kilun fades here comes Lopez Garcia past.
The Spanish yellow jersey on fire here, he passes Kilun
Samwel comes streaming past but Marquez has blown, the two stage winners Samwel and Lopez Garcia are going to gap everyone.
Samwel comes past too
A well timed attack from Lopez Garcia whose Santander team have been excellent today, he has a gap on most to defend in his hated Time Trial territory tomorrow.
Stage win two for Lopez Garcia
Samwel gets second ahead of Kilun, whose third place is still a very good performance ahead of Marquez. There is a largish gap back from him to Valls, who leads in the next group of riders. Valls leads in the rest of the contenders
In fact Delgado, Rodrigues and Hernandez are given the same time as the Rodas/Camano/Mercado group which rather negates the Rodrigues – Hernandez move forward. Still Santander and Bimbo Nutella can be pleased their riders have the gap they probably need over the dangerous better TT men. Very good ride from Kilun too, who has somehow out climbed some excellent mountain men.
