The stage start in Luarca, Principado de Asturias, a small town on the coast facing the Bay of Biscay, with a small but beautiful fishery harbor. From here the route goes deep into the Cantabrian Mountains passing over several peaks before a summit finish on Ermita de Alba.
With 7 categorized climbs and the gruesome Hors Catégorie summit finish today’s stage is the hardest profile we have seen so far, it is very likely that we will see some riders collapse and totally destroy the faith their manages had in them this morning, while others may deliver great and maybe unexpected results.
There is a total of 70 KoM points at stake today.
It is a nice and sunny late spring day in northwest Spain, just a light breeze.
The race starts literately uphill, ascending Alto de Aristébano 14.6 km at 3.5%, a 10 rider breakaway form within the first 3 km.
The break is: Kosic, Hughes, Lammertink, Oram Prades, Herrada, Taubel, Rojas Gil, Chatarunga and Chhetri.
Vesuvio – Accumalux leads the pack in a modest pace, the breakaway has 3’27” over the KoM.
It is Prades in front of Herrada and Chhetri sharing the points on the cat.3 climb
In the breakaway Prades is the best placed rider in the mountain competition with 18 pts. (7th) Chhetri has 16 points (8th), Comparing to A. Schelecks 56 (1th)
159 km left.
The breakaway is between the two first KoM climbs, the pace is too hot in front and the breakaway starts to thin out, first Chatarunga then Kosic, Taubel, and finally also Oram now all hanging like pearls on a string behind the front group
Peloton at 4’05”
Hughes leading over the top of the uncategorised but yet rather hard climb between the two Cat. 3, Lammertink also lose contact to the breakaway but come back on the descent.
Mainly Vesuvio – Accumalux leading the pack with F. Schleck doing most of the work at this point. From time to time also De Gendt take a few turns.
We get a crash with 153 km left, it is Lehtinen, Ludvigsson and Parra Bustamente, they all fall back from the peloton (134 riders at 2’53”) to the main gruppetto with most of the sprinters (32 riders at 5’10”)
Just 4 km later we get a series of new crashes first Kozontchuk and Tolleson.
Just minutes later, Kostyuk (Control), Wohler, and much more importantly Hugo Boss Top climber Aberlardo Ablenado. A very hard crash, they all take some time to recover and get back up ending last in the race 7’09” behind the breakaway.
The 2nd KoM Alto de Tieno is 9km at 5.4%.
The pace set by the break is now also too much for both Lammertink and Rojas Gil they both lose touch.
Herrada wins the sprint in front of Hughes and Chhetri.
This time Koren leads the pack on most of the climb
A solo crash Chatarunga down on the tarmac.
98 km left Hughes attack for the 3rd KoM, with Herrada and Chhetri at wheel, Prades can’t keep up, at these point the only four rider in front of the peloton.
Again Herrada wins the KoM in front of Hughes and Chhetri.
Peloton (125 Riders) getting closer and closer now at 2’00”, Ludvigsson at 3’39, Ablenado at 8’23.
The next 30 km is relative easy passing an intermediate sprint in Trubia before the start of the next climb.
In the peloton it is mainly Heymes and Koren taking turns, now a little more relaxed and the distance grows again,
Prades reconnect to the breakaway. They start the climb to Alto De Tenebredo, 4.3 km 7.1% with a gap of 2’54”.
In the peloton Kirsch joins Heymes in front to help controlling the race. The peloton seem more tense now all the favourites and their top domestics gathering between the first 30 riders.
Herrada set a high pace on the steep slopes and again it is too much for Prades.
With 1 km to the top, several riders attack first Rosch, soon after Herrada, Koch and Kulhavy
Result of 2nd category KoM: Herrada Hughes Chhetri Prades Rosch
There is an intermediate sprint in Argame before the next KoM, it does not matter to anyone but let’s use it to look at the time differences.
54 km to the finish
In front Herrada, Hughes, Chhetri, Prades
At 1’51 Rosch
At 2’18 Herrada, Koch and Kulhavy
Peloton at 3’28 (109 riders) Ludvigsson who previously seemed ok and was slowly catching up, has now fallen behind the gruppetto at 12’22, this may indicate that he was more hurt from the crash, than it first seemed.
The last of the easier climbs today, category 3 Alto de Cordal. 7.5 km at 5.9%
The breakaway has 1.5 km to the top, and 37.3 km to the finish line, this is the situation:
In front Herrada, Hughes, Chhetri
As we have seen before Prades in trouble on the steeper sections, now at 1’07.
At 1’29 Herrada, Koch and Kulhavy have caught Rosch
From the peloton we get the first initiative amongst the GC riders, with 3 km to the top Dombrowski attacks and Lecuisinier counters.
Again Herrada wins the KoM in front of Hughes, Chhetri 3rd but this time he loses time and gets isolated over the top.
In the peloton new attacks Kritskiy, Machado, Velits and Monsalve have accelerated almost closing the cap to Dombrowski and Lecuisinier.
Just to mention a few rider sitting dangerously low if this is where the true selection is about to begin. The rider are officially in the peloton but need to close some gaps to get inside the first 20-25 riders. Keizer, Vosekalns and Preidler
Machado has good legs it seems, quickly able to close up to Dombrowski
Where as Lecuisinier strucles to hold the pace Dombrowski sets on the last part of the climb.
Situation over the top when Dombrowski passes, 35.8 km left for him, and two very hard climbs.
In front Herrada and Hughes
At 1’03 Chhetri
At 1’55 Koch and Kulhavy
At 2’39 Dombrowski and Machado
At 2’51 Herrada, Rosch, Prades, and Lecuisinier
Everyone else reeled back to the peloton, 76 riders at 3’11
The riders reach the start of cat.1 Alto de la Cobertoria, 9.7 km at 8.9% very tough at the first 7 km.
The duo in front has 1’23 to a group of four Koch Kulhavy, Dombrowski Machado Chhetri somewhere in between
Peloton 28” further back. Now 70 riders.
Just as the road raise from 1% at more than 7%, Goos speeds up in front of the peloton, reeling in group Dombrowski
Chhetri is reeled in.
With 7 km to the top, only Herrada and Hughes in front of the favorites, they got 1’52”
Kirsch and Goos, Schleck right behind protected by König
Behind Vesuvio position is Madrazo 5th, Pluchkin 6th, Dombrowski 7th.
Besides the once that crashed earlier, all the favorites in the first half of this group, 62 riders.
5.5 km to the top, 23.5 to the line
In the breakaway Hughes start to suffer of the dreadful slopes, now Herrada alone in front
On a 10.6% slope Dombrowski attacks again, Madrazo counters.
But they don’t get far again Goos close up with a tremendous reaction, indeed very strong today.
5.5 km to the top
Just as Hughes gets caught and blocks the front Dombrowski again !
The position behind Hughes is, Madrazo, Goos, Nepomnyachsniy, A. Schleck, Pluchkin and Machado side by side, Lecuisinier, Kritskiy, König, Abal, Monsalve, Galta, Arndt, Haig, Keizer, Velits.
A total of 32 rider left in the peloton.
The attack provokes a further increase in the pace and the peloton split again, a larger group of riders lose contact, the largest name is Guldhammer. With 3.5 km to the top they are 59” after what we could now call the favorite group now with just 20 riders left.
In front of the favorite group A. Schleck accelerates, not splitting the group but hard enough to bring back Dombrowski and Herrada
We get a series of attacks from different riders on the last 2 km before the top of Alto de la Cobertoria.
First Kritskiy with Dombrowski and Pluchkin.
Then behind them also Lecuisinier and Madrazo.
Kritskiy get a bit too hot and fall back, while Schleck close the gap to Madrazo.
Just as they pass over the top Madrazo and Schleck close the gap to Dombrowski and Pluchkin
After all this action over just 1.5 km, let’s look at the situation
In front Madrazo, Schleck, Dombrowski Pluchkin
At 24” Velits, Kritskiy, Galta, Lecuisinier, Keizer and Abal
At 1’23 Monsalve, Arndt, Vosekalns, Machado, Nepomnyachsniy, Van den Broeck, Nesset, Haig, Herrada, Preidler, Bonnin, Goos
At 2’20 11 riders including Brambilla, König, Olivier, Guldhammer, Bibby, Koch
As seen from the picture these official times are not always exact, Velits clearly closer than anyone else.
Result of Cat 1 Dombrowski Pluchkin, Madrazo Schleck Velits Kritskiy Galta
The pace on the descent is moderate, more and more riders make contact to the first group, eventually 22 riders approach the climb to Ermita de Alba together, the final climb is 7.1 km at 10.4%.
Positioning from the bottom is roughly: Goos, Schleck, Nepomnyachsniy, Madrazo, Pluchkin, Dombrowski, Machado, Kritskiy, Lecuisinier, Velits, Monsalve, Keizer, Galta, Haig, Abal, Arndt, Van den Broeck, Bonnin, Vosekalns, Nesset, Herrada, Preidler.
Goos is at a section of 16.5%
6.4 km to the top, slope 10.1% Madrazo attack with Schleck clued. In front of the favorite group also Pluchkin, standing up and accelerating.
5.4 km to the top, slope 10.6% Madrazo leading in front of Schleck, at his wheel Pluchkin have closed up.
Behind them we see Lecuisinier and Monsalve have also laid some distance to the larger group.
Just as the trio in front passes under the 5 km banner, Dombrowski accelerate out of the large group.
In front right after the banner, the slope increases to horrible 12.7%, the fast pace set by Madrazo is too much for Pluchkin he can no longer hold Schleck’s wheel.
The situation is
At 12” Pluchkin
At 32” Lecuisinier
At: 47” Monsalve, Dombrowski
At 1’10” Galta, Abal
At 1’29” Machado
At 1’40” 15 riders, the news is that Brambilla have now joined this group from behind.
3.2 km to the top Pluchkin have managed to rejoin the leading group.
At 33” Dombrowski now alone, Monsalve seem to have boiled over, but back to him later in the list.
At 1’08” Lecuisinier who was passed and left behind by Dombrowski,
With Lecuisinier now Galta and Abal, which is quite astonishing they have actually gained on the leaders over the last 1.5 km.
At 1’37 Monsalve seems to lose time very fast now.
Everyone else more than 2’30 behind and scattered all over the mountain.
2.3 km to the top, slope 14.1%
The trio in front, seems to have slowed down a little, opening an opportunity for Dombrowski to catch op, now 4 stage leaders.
Let’s take a last look at the distances before the final battle begins.
At 1’20 Galta, Abal and Lecuisinier
At 1’41 Kritskiy has advanced nicely over the last kilometer.
At 2’32 Monsalve with Keizer, and Vosekalns, very nice move forward for the two last mentioned.
At 3’17” Velits, Arndt, Nepomnyachsniy, Van den Broeck, Bonnin, Preidler, Machado
Everyone else more than 4 minutes behind.
1.7 km to the line, slope 6.1% Schleck attack.
It is Schleck first under the red kite, Madrazo close behind him and Dombrowski also close.
The attack was hard on Pluchkin he lost 18”.
The next group 58” behind Pluchkin.
Schleck win another stage at the top of Ermita de Alba, he has been very strong in this Vuelta, still leading also the points and KoM competitions. His 3rd stage win and 4th podium in the Vuelta.
We can see behind him that Pluchkin have reconnected to the other favorites.
It is a close finish amongst the three riders, Madrazo 2nd, Pluchkin 3rd, Dombrowski 4th.
They lose 21” to Schleck
This was both Madrazo’s and Pluchkin's 2nd podium.
Galta is having a brilliant last km, first getting rid of Abal and later also Lecuisinier, he get in 5th losing 1'24” to Schleck
Lecuisinier 6th losing 2’05” to Schleck
As mentioned Kritskiy has advanced nicely and he continues to do so, also passing Abal to claim 7th losing 2'31 to Schleck
Abal 8th losing 2'50 to Schleck Vosekalns 9th and Keizer 10th both losing 3’03 to Schleck
Nepomnyachsniy, Monsalve, Velits and Bonnin in the next group at 4’18, can’t mention everyone but we see some huge time gabs today.
In the youth competition Fredrik S. Galta improved on his slim lead to Pierre-Henri Lecuisinier, from just 11” to 52”. With a very strong day Andris Vosekalns passed Daan Olivier to claim 3rd.
In the GC we also saw some remarkable differences
Top 20 riders who improved positions :
David Abal - Timofey Kritskiy - Fredrik Strand Galta - Pierre-Henri Lecuisinier - Martijn Keizer - Andris Vosekalns - Marc Goos all improved their GC positions.
Top 20 riders losing positions:
Tiago Machado - Yonathan Monsalve - Peter Velits - Georg Preidler - Daan Olivier - Rasmus Guldhammer
In the KoM it was Jesús Herrada’s day coming from nothing he advanced to 5th, best of the riders not in the GC.
Andy Schleck further improved his points lead, if he keeps his climbing up may be hard for the sprinters to take it back.
[PTM] Vuelta a Espana 
