We start today the second week of La Vuelta, and while it’s again a stage for sprinters, it’s the closest to a hilly stage that you can find in a sprinter’s day. The race will leave Spain for today’s finale, as the stage will finish in Peñon de Gibraltar, though riders won’t have to do the full climb, just a short part in the sprint, which could really benefit a rider like Van der Lijke.
Yesterday, Ben Swift won his third stage in the past four days, and finally took the race lead from Festina’s Bryan Coquard. Today the jersey is again in play, but not only these two riders fight for it, as Leigh Howard. The gap between the three riders is just 4 seconds
The stage started like many others in this race, with several riders attempting to breakaway and sprinter’s teams chasing them back until only a short number of riders were in front. This time 8 riders have been able to open a 1-minute gap, though Vesuvio and Bennelong are chasing hard behind
Lammertink, Gjolberg, Cataford, De Vresse, Bohli, De Haes, Korosec and Sweeck. Actually none of these riders are a danger for the GC leaders, because yesterday all of them lost a lot of time
They were caught before the first KoM of the day, a Cat.4 climb. Lammertink and Bohli went clear from the bunch in the start of the climb, and fought for the 5 points in the top of it, where the eBuddy rider would be the strongest
Puerto de Ojen - Cat.4
Lammertink 5
Bohli 3
Marcos 1
Marcos had attacked before for the points in the climb, and eventually joined the leading duo. Behind them, several riders were still quite active, trying to get in the breakaway in order to fight for the KoM points, like Horton, Groselj, Hivert, Betilsson, Besada, Barbier, Cataford, Gjolberg or De Vresse
And the bunch finally gave up on the chase, so 7 riders will form today’s breakaway.
Marcos won easily the second KoM of the day, after Bohli blocked the other riders when the Swiss couldn’t follow the Minions rider. The gap of the breakaway was up to 4 minutes with 110 kms to go
Puerto del Castaño - Cat.4
Marcos 5
Horton 3
Lammertink 1
Marcos really wants this KoM jersey, and wins in the only Cat.3 climb of the day, ahead of Lammertink and Marcos. Now Lammertink leads with 16 points the KoM standings, only 1 more than current leader Gjolberg and Marcos
Puerto de las Palomas - Cat.3
Marcos 5
Lammertink 3
Horton 1
Horton defeats Marcos in the final climb of the day, with 70 kms to go, but it’s enough for the Cuban champion to take the lead in KoM standings at the end of the stage.
In the bunch, during some kms, the peloton was divided in two groups, with a rider like Marquez in the second group, like some sprinters as Zabel, Chen, Kupfernagel or Soupe, but they made it back into the bunch. The pace has been really high over this hills, and that could see some damage done on the sprinters, that wouldn’t have it easy anyway with the final km of the stage
Puerto de Galis - Cat.4
Horton 5
Marcos 3
Lammertink 1
Final 10 kms and the breakaway has been reduced to just 4 riders, with Horton setting a high pace to avoid being caught by the bunch, led by Vesuvio. Only Hivert, Marcos and Lammertink can follow the Evonik rider, as they hold a 1’05 gap over the bunch. Several rider have got dropped from the bunch, but no one really important yet
Riders are already seeing El Peñon ahead of them with just 5 kms to go. The breakaway has 45 seconds, a distance that could be enough to get the win if it was a normal sprint stage. But it isn’t.
In the bunch we see a kinda messy sprint preparation by Aegon, who has very few riders left for the Red Jersey, against Vesuvio’s great support of Van der Lijke, even after working all day for the Sanremo winner
And Horton attacks with 4 kms to go! He feels strong and doesn’t want to bring other riders with him
Sprint trains made by Vesuvio and Aegon without any sprinters, this could be an issue. And Horton needs a bit luck to get the stage win in front, as the gap with 3,5 kms to go is now 32 seconds.
Even GC riders could get in the mix for the sprint, but watch out for Borges, who is in Aegon’s train, and has a wonderful kick for a finish like this
Keinath
Olivier
Goos
Swift
Van der Lijke
Coquard
Howard
Borges
Zabel
Zardini
Enger
Stallaert
Horton is now inside the final 2 kms, while the road is starting to rise slightly. Marcos tried to follow the British rider, but is now struggling and will be caught in any moment by the bunch.
Howard is launching his sprint from a very long distance, and this won’t work with the final km that awaits the rider. A couple of extra Aegon riders have appeared in the front to help Swift in the sprint, while we see some of the GC riders like Madrazo, Tenorio, Phinney, Herklotz or Kritskiy very attentive in the first places of the peloton
1,5 kms for Horton still, and he doesn’t look like he’s going to make it to the end. A very early launch from most of the less-punchy sprinters will make him to be swallowed by the group very quickly. Meanwhile, Van der Lijke and Swift are holding their sprint, knowing that the hardest part is yet to come
Howard leads passing through the “Green Kit”, in the moment that the group overtakes Horton.
Enger, Borges, Stallaert, Coquard and Zabel are right behind Howard, but there’s a small gap in favor of the Aussie. Van der Lijke is following wheels at the moment, looking great for the moment that the road really rises up. Herklotz, Madrazo and Martin aren’t far from the first places, while Swift looks to not have the speed yet to compete for the win, maybe a too hard stage for him
And right when the road saw slopes of around 6%, Van der Lijke used all his power to put himself in the prime position with 600 metres to go. The pure sprinters are clearly struggling now, so watch out with the GC riders like Herklotz, Madrazo or Phinney, who are coming quick from places 10-15. Also Swift looks to have timed better the sprint than other and is making up some places now
And Nick van der Lijke takes a magnificent win in Gibraltar! Once he reached the hard slopes of this finish, he skyrocketed into the win easily
Howard finishes second despite his super early launch, which means that the Aussie is back in the race lead after his short stint earlier in the race, when he won the opening day.
It looks like there’s a battle between Herklotz and Phinney for the final podium spot, and more importantly, the 8 bonus seconds
And after checking in the photo-finish, the third place and the 8 bonus seconds goes to Herklotz!
Zabel takes fifth ahead of Borges, Stallaert, Enger, Intxausti and Madrazo, with Coquard and Swift just outside the Top10 of the stage
A stage in Paris - Nice, Milano - Sanremo, now a stage win in La Vuelta... Van der Lijke’s season is still going strong. The Dutchman wasn’t awarded a gap that he would have deserved, but given that his current gap to the Top3 in GC is more than half a minute, it won’t matter too much for him
We already said that Howard was back into the GC lead, but he will only enjoy the jersey for one day. Even if he stays on the lead after the final sprint stage in a long time, he won’t enjoy his ride in S10 TT. A great race for the Aussie, who today was the only of the three best sprinters in this race to get a good result out of the stage
