A hard hilly stage of over 200 kms is what the riders will have to ride today, as La Vuelta has its first uphill finish in the race in Cerro San Cristobal. Three climbs in the final 30-40 kms, but we don’t expect really big gaps in the finish, maybe those riders that struggle in hilly terrain, like Intxausti, Abal or Eastman could lose time today.
Yesterday Taylor Phinney won the timetrial in Cadiz and took the GC lead from Kritskiy and Tenorio, the only 2 riders that stay within 2 minutes of the American in the GC
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Six are the number of riders that form today’s breakaway, which doesn’t include KoM leader, and only one of their integrants has scored KoM points so far. Weirdly, Minions has a rider on this breakaway, which also contains last year’s KoM winner
We’ve just had a really boring 160 kms of stage, where the bunch never allowed the breakaway to have a gap higher than 3 minutes, so they are not even starting the first climb with a 2-minute gap over the peloton. An important thing is that the wind is present, with a speed around 25 km/h all day
Lammertink goes first in this Cat.3 climb ahead of Egger, which gives the eBuddy rider the oportunity to score enough points to tie Marcos in the KoM lead later in the stage. Also, these two riders have a nice gap over the rest of the breakaway, so they might not wait for them in the descent
Serrania de Sol - Cat.3
Lammertink 6
Egger 4
Bayly 2
Egger and Lammertink are about to start the first pass by Cerro San Cristobal, with a 40-second gap over Bayly, who also dropped the rest of the breakaway. The bunch is only 2 minutes behind the leaders, with Puma in charge of the chase so far
Really high pace that Puma is setting in favour of Herklotz, and while the breakaway are almost caught, the most important thing is that we are seeing some riders in the back of the group that are already struggling like Eastman, Marquez, Carapaz and more importantly, 2014 winner Alarcon, while a rider like Coquard remains within the first 50 places yet
And Eastman gets dropped very early! The first of the GC rider that struggles today, and the American could end up losing today all his Top10 hopes. Meanwhile, Vysna is attacking from the bunch in the same moment as the breakaway riders fight for the points in this climb
Lammertink wins the max points in this climb too, and becomes the new KoM leader at the end of this stage despite being a tie with Marcos at the top
Cerro San Cristobal 1 - Cat.3
Lammertink 6
Bayly 4
Egger 2
Only around 60 riders remain in the leader’s group, that continues being controlled by Puma riders, and the last of them is Jose Alarcon! The Venezuelan is struggling to keep touch with this group, but even if he does keep it, he doesn’t look good for the final climb, and if he already has a 7-minute loss with Phinney, this will only increase today
Vysna is able to join the leading group, but only to get inmediately caught by the bunch, where RBC is now putting Carpenter into chasing duties, as it looks like Phinney feels great for a stage win attempt. And in the back of this group, it’s not only Alarcon, but also Marquez, Abal, Galta and Olivier, those who suffered the most to stay in the group so far.
Meanwhile, Eastman is already losing 3 minutes with 10 kms to go. A very long day for the Azteca leader
8 kms to go, the whole climb of Cerro San Cristobal to do, and Herklotz is already attacking! The german talent has put his team to work all day and doesn’t hesitate to attack very early. And it looks like Borges doesn’t want to miss this move. Let’s see what Phinney does now
And Phinney has decided to stay in the bunch and trust Kritskiy domestique’s, as it’s Ignatenko trying to bring the two leaders back, something that the Russian isn’t capable of. And Alarcon is already getting dropped from this group
Less than 5 kms to go! Herklotz and Borges still hold a 20-second gap over Phinney’s group, where Martin is pulling, despite RBC having a second rider there like Bonnin.
10 seconds further behind, Kritskiy, Barguil, Van der Lijke and a couple of Gazelle domestiques are not collaborating, so the riders in front go away. Tenorio, Schelling and Madrazo are about to connect with those riders, after not being well placed before the start of the climb
Phinney is getting dropped by Dan Martin! The Irish rider was too strong for the race leader, and is about to finalise the catch to Herklotz and Borges with just 3 kms to go. Gazelle is pulling in the group that is a few seconds behind, working for Madrazo, while Van der Lijke is still looking good
Final 2 kms for the leading trio, who holds a 23-second gap to the leader’s group. Van der Lijke is starting to struggle now, so a unlikely stage win hopes are gone for the Dutchman. Btw, in that 30-rider group, riders like Quintana, Arndt, Chamorro, Goos, Cattaneo, Galta, Marquez, Brambilla, Chiarello, Nerz and Abal are no longer there
Madrazo has already used all his domestiques, and has to go alone with less than 2 kms to go. Tenorio is going after him, but it looks like Kritskiy, Van der Lijke and Phinney struggle to follow the 2012 Vuelta winner
Herklotz is attacking under the Flamme Rouge, with a very dangerous Borges (for the stage win) and Martin on his wheel. Not sure if the smartest strategy for the stage win, but he might only be looking to get as much time back as possible on Phinney and Madrazo
The two best Spanish climbers have broke free from Phinney’s watch, but they are 30 seconds behind the riders that fight for the stage win
Less than 500 metres left and all three riders have opened their sprints. Herklotz is still in front, but it looks like Borges will go past him anytime
With 200 metres to go it’s just a battle between Borges, now in the lead by a narrow margin, and Herklotz, with Martin setteling for third place without losing time
And Bruno Borges is the winner in Cerro San Cristobal! Surprisingly he wasn’t mentioned as a stage favourite, as we thought that this stage could favour punchy climbers, like the two guys that fought for the win with him, but what a way to get his first ever win in a PT race.
Herklotz and Martin make a good deal out of this stage, because they get 12 and 8 bonus seconds, and what it looks like a nice gap over the rest of GC riders
Half a minute later Madrazo and Tenorio cross the line. Madrazo starts to gain back time on the better timetrialist in a stage that wasn’t his favourite, while Tenorio could rise to second in GC
Van der Lijke leads home one minute later than the winner a group which includes several GC riders like Uran (7th), Schelling (9th), Kritskiy (10th), Barguil (11th), Phinney (12th), Haig (13th), Keinath, Intxausti and Olivier
While Bruno Borges goes to the podium to celebrate a perfect day for the Porto, as Intxausti hold with the favourite’s group in a very dangerous stage for him, we get to know how much time did some GC riders lose today.
2’27 for Quintana, 3’18 for Chamorro, Brambilla, Goos, Nerz and Cattaneo. 4 minutes for Abal and 5 minutes for Marquez and Alarcon. Eastman lost over 7 minutes, finishing the stage even behind sprinters like Howard or Swift
So while Taylor Phinney continues leading the race, we have a fairly new Top10. Kritskiy is still second at 1’07, but Tenorio gets closer at 1’14. Madrazo is fourth is still 2’04 behind Phinney, with Uran a few second behind. Herklotz rises to sixth, 2’31 is his disadvantage, with Intxausti, Keinath, Schelling and Martin in the Top10 all of them less than 4 minutes behind Phinney.
Alarcon is already 11 minutes behind Phinney before starting the mountain stages
