Thanks for your great advice in my last thread, I've got another question where I need both your opinion and your advice.
First, your opinion:
My rider rides the Vuelta, his first grand tour. He came with low expectations: he was quite tired although in a good shape. In order to get the chance to win a stage from a break away, he let himself lose 8th minutes on the first flat stage. Surprisingly, he managed two stage wins on hilly stages in the first week, each time with about 50 seconds over the peloton, collecting the KOM jersey along the way.
My initial plan was to try to keep the KOM jersey as long as possible in Omar Fraile style, going along with smart breakaways and staying with the pack otherwise. My team, Direct Energie, seemed to approve of this. However, in trying to stay with the favourites in order to get at those juicy KOM points at the uphill finish, it appears that my rider has stayed at a steady +10 mins in GC from the red jersey while countless others have dropped away, launching his standing from 61th to 19th. Now, my team wants me to race for the standings and let the KOM jersey slip.
What would you do, go for the KOM or for a GC result between 15th and 20th? I'm now at stage 10, so I still have the high mountains and the ITT in front of me...
Also, if going for the GC, should I still try and score mountain points? Likewise, if going for KOM, can I best try to lose more minutes?
Another thing I noticed: I've given stage 10 a try without finishing it, because I noticed something peculiar: every time I reached a breakaway group, they immediately stopped riding. No matter what group or how much distance to the peloton. Is it because, with my +10 min, my fellow breakaway riders think I'll be to much of a threat to the GC? Or are there other mechanics at play?
About the last thing, it happened to me once in a Tour de Suisse, where in last stage, a mountain stage, i tried to go for KOM, and nobody in the break helped me, even i was more than 30 minutes down on GC. By that time i had a 80 in MON, so i supoused that the other rider thought that i was too strong, so they didn't have a chance to win the stage
