Thomas Bontenackets was actually in the break yesterday and clearly had massive problems in yesterdays finale - rumours are that there was a crash that must have taken him out of the race. Also notable is that Pendleton's were the last team with a full complement of 9 riders and Millar was their first withdrawal.
Sorry for not getting this to you in yesterday's report and certainly this is bad news for the Cafe de Colombia squad who would have hoped for Rogers to have finished the race at least. They, Webeffect and Sony Ericsson now just have four riders left which is scant support for their GC leaders Abal, Sella and Pedraza. Today does look like an ugly one for any weary riders with a brutal quadruple header of short sharp climbs to finish the day.
So we have about 140km of flat before the four climbs, the first two are classed as 2nd category and the last two are 1st category climbs. We finish atop the last into Bejes which involves a 5km climb averaging 10%.
Only 121 riders are left in the Vuelta which means there is less riders to create a break, but of course less riders to actually chase it down. Not that the riders involved are comparable but we have the sort of field we are used to in CTour's division two and breaks have great chances there. Ten riders try their luck early.
Santander chase this down fairly quickly, but three more riders immediately counter.
Timofey Kritskiy Iker Camaño
and Tanel Kangert
now go on the move. After resting for a while Barredo, Pardilla, Keinath and Faiers go back out on the attack along with Danilo Di Luca
Having watched these early moves a final group of five bridge across Simon Zahner Christoph Mai Serge Pauwels Thomas Rohregger
and Solis once again.
It builds up a good break of 12 riders and after chasing the first smaller breakaway Santander decide that they cannot keep chasing everything down and allow it to settle. They have a big couple of days for their leader Madrazo and cool it down.
We have gone through two intermediate sprints by the 100km to go point.
Sprint 1: Kangert - > Kritskiy - > Camano
Sprint 2: Barredo - > Keinath - > Mai
Barredo is well placed in the mountains competition with 46 points and Solis is on 48 points, some way down on Madrazo's 68 points but close to second place Contador who is on 50 points. With 100km to go the break has six minutes so some good chances of some points for the breakaway.
Santander don't seem to want to really force things along, but two other teams who have taken it easy in the last couple of days decide to push things along.
It's Vesuvio working for Intxausti and Festina working for Contador and by the bottom of the first climb of the day they have reduced the gap down to 4.30. The final sprint of the day incidentally was won by Rohregger over Pardilla and Kangert, Rohregger is current the highest placed GC man in the break (18th at 37.17) with Barredo (19th at 39.26), Kritskiy (20th at 41.18), Camano (24th at 49.56) and Keinath (27th at 51.09) riders that can profit from this move.
The climb is far too short to catch the break which is led over by Oscar Solis who nabs the 10 point maximum, Barredo again barely bothers getting 4th place behind Pardilla and Mai. It moves Solis to 58 points just 10 behind Madrazo and Barredo to 50 points now sharing 3rd place with Contador.
Towards the top of the climb the pack is led over by Santander, who realise that after the work by Vesuvio and Festina there is a stage win chance here. The main pack is reduced down to just 40 riders.
The second climb is similar to the first in that it is 6km long and averaging 6%, the pack have got the gap to the break down to three minutes. But it is not all out chase yet, affording Solis the chance for more points not the maximum here though as Barredo wakes up to the fact he has a chance in this competition!
Barredo takes the maximum ten points to move to 60 KoM points, with Solis taking second to move to 66 KoM points now just two points below Madrazo.
Out of the 12 man break just one is dropped and it is one of the two Bacardo leaders Pardilla.
Behind the Santander led pack Plaza is desperately trying to reach the back end of it, but he just cannot get across.
Coming into our last 22.5km of the stage our now 11 man break are coming into the first of two 1st category climbs. The length of this one is the same as the last two but the steepness is at an average of 7.5%. This could be the key platform for a stage win and the break still have a chance though with only two minutes on the pack someone needs to get moving.
Mai has been quiet on the first two climbs and now opens it up, Rohregger behind tries to respond nothing really yet from Solis.
In the pack, riders are also alive to the possibility of getting away and it is minor GC men Denis Menchov
(14th at 26.48) and Stefan Denifl
(12th at 18.42) who attack.
Two fairly low yeild threats to Santander, but before anyone thinks about allowing these two any margin the Red Jersey of Angel Madrazo
decides today he can do something all by himself.
This puts pressure on other teams to respond, and Alberto Contador
having used some of Serpa's energy up decides to try and jump across to our brilliant Vuelta GC leader.
1km to go to the top of the climb and Mai leads alone.
Madrazo overtakes the break and is hunting down our road leader.
Indeed Madrazo does catch Mai but allows the French rider to take the top prize at the 1st category climb moving Mai to 50 points. Madrazo though grabs a healthy 12 points bonus to move to 80 KoM points. Behind him Contador at about 45 seconds crosses third (moving him to 60 KoM points) with Keinath and then Barredo (moving up to 66 KoM points). Solis fails to score on this climb meaning the provisional mountain standings are:
1) Madrazo 80 points
2) Solis/Barredo 66 points
4) Contador 60 points
5) Mai 50 points
The rest of the favourites ride over the top at 90 seconds behind Madrazo and Mai, the lead duo descend together.
Contador is doggedly chasing Madrazo with Keinath who is showing us some decent climbing legs today.
Behind the rest of the surviving breakaway and the favourites merge to create a group of 18 riders.
Beñat Intxausti Alejandro Valverde Tiago Machado Emanuele Sella Jaroslav Popovych Denis Menchov Rafael Valls Stefan Denifl
are the GC men here along with former breakaways Rohregger, Faiers, Barredo, Di Luca, Kangert, Camano and Kritskiy. A couple of the teams here have two riders with them due to breakaway's in Pearl Adidas, Pendletons, Nestle and Webeffect.
Abal, Tenorio and Gomez Marchante have been caught out a bit here and really should be in that lead group. Thirty seconds further back is five riders Pedraza, Serpa, Kunshin, Samwel and Iglinski who seem to be struggling. The worst GC man though is Plaza who is way back at 4.27, having not made it across is now having to struggle past all dropped riders.
Up front Contador manages to reel in Mai and Madrazo as we begin our final 5km climb, the group of 18 riders catch Keinath and are about 50 second behind the lead trio. Abal, Gomez M and Tenorio have not managed to bridge that 30 second gap and it has grown to nearly a minute.
Contador moves past Mai to try and sit on Madrazo's wheel.
4km left: It is Popovich, 11th on GC, who with the riders from 7th through to 10th on GC struggling is looking to push the pace here. Valverde also must be looking to move up on GC but he has the man 14 seconds ahead of him in Sella right on his wheel.
Mai slips back, the Wikipedia man has had a hell of a ride.
Valverde senses Popovich slowing slightly and puts in a big attack, Sella, Intxausti, Machado and finally Popovich try to follow.
3km left: Valverde reaches Madrazo and Contador, it seems Madrazo doesn't want to give Contador a tow to the finish. Behind our lead trio is Intxausti, Sella, Popovich, Denifl, Machado and Menchov.
Popovich also manages to bridge across this 10 bike length gap, but as he does Madrazo subtly lifts the pace and Contador cannot close the gap down.
We can see behind that Machado is moving past Intxausti and Sella to try and bridge to the other three but the gap is small. A widening gap though is appearing behind Madrazo, we are getting used to seeing the new Spanish champion motoring away.
The rest of the riders group up and it is all the GC men who were up in that front group: Contador, Valverde, Popovich, Machado, Menchov, Intxausti, Sella and Denifl.
A minute or so further down the road Gomez Marchante and Abal are trying to move through the debris of the former breakaways and Santander domestique Valls.
2km left: Madrazo is up the road and Valverde clearly desperate to nab some additional seconds attacks again.
His attack doesn't last very long though and having regrouped Contador launches a decent counter punch.
Valverde still has good speed and Popovich who is having his best day of the race so far is hanging on to him with Intxausti once again in grinding mode.
Contador though is making no impression on Madrazo's lead whose gap continues to rise to over a minute as he rides into Bejes.
This was a statement of intent by Madrazo that who doesn't need to rely on his team in the climbs, which serves as a notable warning for Tour de France opponents. He takes his 3rd successive mountains win in the Vuelta.
Contador is looking every inch the runner up in the race and seems to be the only rider who can challenge Madrazo having chased him down following the penultimate climb. He crosses the line second 18 seconds ahead of Valverde.
Popovich just lost his momentum a touch and finishes with Intxausti twenty seconds further back. Intxausti gains a bit of time on 3rd place rivals Sella and Machado.
Finishing with Sella is Menchov and Denifl who both had good days today.
44 seconds down on them and losing a minute to Popovich is Gomez Marchante. It's not a complete disaster for the UBS man as he has dropped Abal.
Abal is another 40 seconds down, losing a fairly sizable chunk of time on Popovich and only gaining a handful of seconds on Tenorio.
Tenorio finishes with Valls, both need to be a little better for Santander tomorrow was Madrazo attacking because his teammates were struggling? Arroyo is coming back into form a little as he finishes inside the top 35 today, they'll be relieved to know.
The worst day really for a GC contender was Plaza who finishes 5.29 down on Madrazo losing two to three minutes on his close GC rivals. It could have been worse but you feel the time loss is down to a positional error more than anything else.
The last rider in is Juraj Sagan who finishes at 38.18, which is way inside the time limit so no eliminations today.
Stage results
The best breakaway rider in the end was Keinath who split Gomez M and Abal, showing it was well worth the effort for him. The riders coming home late on will have to work hard to stay in the race on stage 16.
GC
Madrazo looks invincible and Contador is getting a very decent buffer in second. Intxausti looks vunerable but is grafting well only losing time consitently to Valverde who is still 1.13 down in him. Sella seems to be looking leggy after all that pace work he did fruitlessly for sprinter Avelino in the first and second week. Tenorio, Gomez M and Abal did not have the best of days and are getting to within range of notable last weeker Popovich.
Plaza had a horrible day going down to 12th.
Points
Madrazo moves stronglyt into the lead on the points competition and with two more mountains stages in the next days, he needs an unpredictable collapse of form to stop him. Van Stayen does have 40 points on Contador so a points podium is possible the target. Mountain stage winners in the first week Intxausti and Sella start to work their way up the leaderboard.
Mountains
Loads of mountain points on the route tomorrow in what is a key day in this classification. Barredo has been lazy about picking up points, whilst Solis looks more willing. Mai gives Wikipedia hope of salvaging something from this Vuelta as he moves up in this competition.
Youth
Denifl continues to be the fly in the Santander youth standings ointment actually gaining time on a strangely off key Tenorio. Kritskiy moves well clear of Panayotov who had a bad day and Keinath moves further clear of a disappointing Marquez.
Teams
Team seconds and thirds are all struggling, so whilst Tenorio had a bit of an off day Valls actually did rather well. Vesuvio held out okay though Samwel and Iglinski are not proving as good as they were earlier on. Wiggle meanwhile move ahead of Festina as Contador becomes more of a one man band. Pendleton's had a better day and move back into contention of a team top five.
