It's the second day in the Pyrenees and after yesterday's short sharp climb up the Col de Pal we have a more grinding Envalira climb today. It's a fair amount of climbing on the menu again and a stage that certainly should not be underestimated.
The Angel opened his climbing wings fully yesterday as Madrazo went the whole way and took his first stage victory to comfirm his GC lead. Behind it feels as if the other favourites are watching each other for the other two steps on the podium or can they find a weakness in the young pretender?
We have just 132 riders left in the race, but the riders refuse to take things easy as a move goes very early on.
These six are joined by Paolo Scarponi Antonio Colom Mas
and Joost Posthuma
However it is too early for Santander to allow this kind of group full of domestique style climbers to go clear - the squad swamp the sprint as well putting the dampeners on the race. The reason becomes clear though with a nasty looking crash for Stefan Denifl
His teammates Yeison Delgado
and Marconi Durán
pace the Nestle man back to the pack.
Chasing onto this decent looking climbers group are Christoph Mai Leopold König
and Cayetano Sarmiento
We also get a move by Óscar Solis
Solis takes the mountain points at the top of the climb ahead of Barredo and Faiers. It takes Solis up to 46 KoM points just two points behind Madrazo.
Santander though are keeping this in check with the gap never really pulling out to the magic two minutes mark and once again pull everything back together.
Mai of the small Wikipedia crew is determined to get things moving and tries again.
Scarponi, tries the underdog move his team manager likes so much overtaking Mai to take the sprint with Barredo behind him.
Maillet and Pecherroman jump across also along with much maligned B&O leader Keinath.
The German is trying a different tack after clearly not being able to live with the best climbers, the very decent all rounder is going for a break.
Not much action for the King of the Mountains points despite the presence of Barredo who has 22 KoM points. The Warner Brothers rider does not contest the first prime, with Wikipedia's Mai adding to his twelve points by taking the second of the 3rd category climbs ahead of Scarponi and Maillet.
We hear news of another Nestle rider crashing and pulling out - Duran who helped his leader early on is forced out of the race.
We still have two climbs left before the last one and it builds in difficulty, the first is a second category climb which is a longish shallow type. The six riders ride well together on the front and have built nearly a six minute lead with 120km to go.
The do attack each other for the more generous points offerings on this climb with the previously pointless Pecharroman taking the top points ahead of a Barredo (who moves to 30 KoM points), Scarponi, Keinath, Maillet and Mai.
The Spyker rider seems to have suddenluy woken up to the chances of making a run at this mountains jersey and eyes up the opposition as we move to the next climb a first category one.
The penultimate climb is slightly longer but still is a long ways out and it is not time for the break to do anything stupid as they continue to ride together well.
Barredo takes the full points moving him onto 46 KoM points, ahead of Maillet, Pecharroman, Scarponi, Keinath and Mai. There are two points on offer for the next rider over and Solis attacks to take them.
The provisional KoM standings are Equal 1st Madrazo/Solis on 48 points and 3rd Barredo 46 points. It's all going to come down to this last climb then.
Over the top of the first category climb the pack is down to 64 riders and it shreds further as we go over the hilly section that followed the KoM point down to just 40 riders.
The gaps then with 75km to go are:
Lead six (Scarpini, Barredo, Keinath, Pecharraman, Maillet, Mai)
Solis at FIVE minutes
Pack(40 riders) at SEVEN minutes
21 riders inc Samwel, Iglinski and Siutsou at NINE minutes
Arroyo group at ELEVEN and a half minutes
It appears as if the efforts of yesterday have put paid to Vesuvio's key domestiques as when things are checked with 40km to go with Solis being reeled in by a motoring pack we see that the Iglinski/Samwel group is five minutes behind the pack.
This worked for the Spanish rider pretty famously in last years Tour de France when he and Colombian Uran build a minute or so over a lethargic pack. But at the Vuelta this year Santander are not giving any prizes.
Gomez Marchante catches the remaining breakaways Mai, Scarponi, Keinath and Barredo....
But Justo Tenorio
pulls everything back together with 17.5km of climbing left.
Santander are relentless today and sense that at least one of the major favourites is struggling today, under the pressure of the incessant pace Beñat Intxausti
is cracking and loses touch with the favourites group.
Four Santander's but only really Tenorio able to be on the front and with it being a fairly shallow climb Madrazo feels that he needs to keep the pace high and hurt the favourites even more.
He gets disheartened that no-one is really dropped by this and with 8.5km of climbing Gomez Marchante attacks once again.
Tenorio and Madrazo look around they seem to be waiting for Contador who is just sitting there with the grafting Intxausti behind him. Meanwhile Valverde, Sella and Abal joining Gomez Marchante in a move.
Valverde is looking the strongest and enjoys a bit of freedom creating a nice gap.
Meanwhile finally riders need to let go Denifl goes with Lopez Garcia, Barredo and Valls.
5km to go and Valverde leads the field here with Gomez Marchante at 12 seconds desperately trying to claw back on last years winner. The other favourites though are not too far back at 20 seconds and it is Contador who is chasing now.
Madrazo decides to help Contador refusing to allow Valverde an access route back at this stage in the race.
Our elite group of ten (Madrazo, Tenorio, Intxausti, Contador, Machado, Gomez M, Abal, Sella, Valverde, Popovich) then are back together and are bunching behind Contador who has gone to the front.
Denifl is about 90 seconds behind, but the failed elite men Menchov, Plaza, Pedraza are 5 minutes down which is another climbing disaster really.
They near the top of the climb, are these ten going to leave it to a sprint?
Madrazo says to hell with it and attacks.
Contador and Valverde are onto this like a flash, but neither can really hold the red jersey's wheel. Gomez Marchante attacks a little bit after and gets a gap on the remaining riders.
Madrazo solo's over the top and despite the cold weather is descending well.
The race leader showed a bit of a punchaers ability today with a vicious acceleration that neither Valverde or Contador could match and he takes his second stage win of the Vuelta.
Valverde outkicks Contador for second, he will gain more time as he continues to undo the damage done from that TTT. Both lost 46 seconds to Madrazo, who really did motor over the top of that climb.
Gomez Marchante is twenty of so seconds behind them with Sella and Abal crossing the line twenty seconds after that.
Intxausti had a really tough one today and finishes just ahead of an improved Popovich with Machado and Tenorio.
Denifl finishes alone at 3.17, with Plaza, Pedraza and Menchov at 6.05.
No eliminations due to time today with Cavendish again just about surviving with a bunch of Jack Wolfskins. The only team with nine riders left Pendleton's are lucky to still be that way with Millar finishing at 64.24 behind Madrazo.
We only lose Marconi Durán who crashed out.
Stage results
The elite group really pulled it out on the rest. Within that group Machado and Intxausti had to go really deep to survive. Serpa so good yesterday had a tough day finishing 20th 7.21 down.
GC
Madrazo, Madrazo, Madrazo is all the fans can chant at the finish Waddarider! His confidence continues to rise and fans are starting to talk excitedly about the Tour... meanwhile Contador continues to build a buffer for himself in second. Intxausti, Machado, Sella and Valverde seem to be in a dogfight for the third podium spot. 7th through to 9th will be a battle also as Popovich closes right in on Plaza.
Points
Madrazo, Madrazo, Madrazo ... the chants continue. Van Stayen is still in the race as is Roelandts and both will be back in with a shot of stage victories in the coming days if they can find a team to chase.
Mountains
Solis looks hungry for it and so now does Barredo, but they are going to need quite a buffer on this Madrazo guy. Eternal runner up and TdF KoM last year Contador moves into second.
Youth
Denifl continues to lose ground on Santander second Tenorio as Marquez had a better day for UBS. Valls remains impressive as Santander's now third GC rider.
Teams
Santander were all over it today, Vesuvio had a really tough one with Samwel and Iglinski dumped pretty early. Festina get dragged back towards the 4th to 8th battle.
