Yet another very tough day in the Vuelta with no less than eight classified climbs ending in yet another mountain top finish atop the Hors Category Alto de Gamontrano which is a really nasty 18.5km climb averaging 9% which is very high for such a long climb.
With some distance between the penultimate climb and the final mountain top finish the early part of the stage will be dominated by those riders going for mountain points and perhaps the hope of a little bit of TV time.
Tom Danielson
attacks pretty much from the gun taking Roman Kreuziger Ben Curfs Christophe Riblon Alex Ardila Cano Marc De Maar Ciaran Kelly
with him.
Danielson(up to 20 KoM pts) takes the first mountain points of the day on the opening 3rd category climb ahead of Curfs (up to 24 KoM pts) and Kreuzinger (up to 4 KoM points).
The pack reel all the break in before the next climb which is a 2nd category one and a fairly nasty one similar to yesterday climbs at the back end of the stage. Just Danielson remains out front and Danilo Di Luca
tries to jump across and manages to fall.
Oh well couldn't have happened to a nicer rider! Danielson seeing the Santander machine behind him eases of the pedals as he is caught thought teammate Iker Camaño
goes.
Looking at the back of the pack sprinters Mark Cavendish Juan Pablo Forero
and Tyler Farrar
struggle already.
We are very quickly into the next climb which is another 2nd category one and with the six joining up with the other three riders, Bacardi's Terciado announces his intentions of going for these primes attacking to take the full points.
It moves the Spanish rider to 42 KoM points, amazingly again Barredo who comes into the day 3rd in the mountains competition on 66 KoM points does not collect any points in this second category climb. Behind Terciado it is Pecharroman (up to 34 pts), Rohregger (up to 16 pts), Camano (up to 18 pts) and Ji (up to 10 pts).
In the pack it is a day for the Santander riders to support Madrazo, they know now it is a case of getting the young rider through to that final climb of the day. David Arroyo
has kept going despite his injuries and leads the pack down the descent.
We roll through the sprint also taken by Terciado ahead of Pauwels and Ji onto the next climb which is the first of two first category ascents. The break of nine riders keep together on this long 9.5km ascent which is at an average of 7.3%, that is until the top and once again Barredo does not go for the points. Terciado collects the full 16 points for winning the climb and Pecharroman once again is second with Camano third, Barredo can only take four points.
Virtual mtn standings:
Madrazo 96 KoM pts
Contador 72 KoM pts
Barredo 70 KoM pts
Solis 66 KoM pts
Terciado 58 KoM pts
Valverde 54 KoM pts
Mai 50 KoM pts
Pecharroman 46 KoM pts
Intxausti 46 KoM pts
The pack is whittled down to just 59 riders here with those behind clearly having to battle against the time limit. The climbing though just doesn't end and the mid stage 15 kilometer ascent continues to pile on the agony.
Terciado is really proving to be the MVP of the day as he again manages to muster the strength to take full points at the top. No sign of Pecharroman here who can only take 2 extra points, as Barredo rolls over in third position on the climb for 10 extra points not that he seemed bothered about it!
Virtual mtn standings
Madrazo 96 KoM points
Barredo 80 KoM points
Terciado 74 KoM points
Contador 72 KoM points
Solis 66 KoM points
Valverde 54 KoM points
Mai 50 KoM points
Pecharroman 48 KoM points
Intxausti 46 KoM points
Óscar Solis
who has been keen to do something in the mountains classification he unleashes one of his barmy mid attacks with 100km to go. It's a pity that the break has 8.30 in hand on him though!
Barredo took the sprint ahead of Pecharroman and Rohregger and finally on the next climb a second category one he goes for a KoM prime. He gets there ahead of Terciado too.
It seems the Warner Brothers rider was teasing Terciado, Pecharroman the only other rider who can make an impact on the mountains standings can again only make up two more points leaving us with this:
Virtual mtn standings:
Madrazo 96 KoM points
Barredo 90
Terciado 82
Contador72
Solis 66
Valverde 54
Mai 50
Pecharroman 50
Intxuasti 46
Behind Santander have been just rolling along comfortably keeping the break at around eight minutes. Vesuvio and Festina decide to do there bit in the pace load.
With the pace high it is a bad time for Walter Pedraza
to fall and worse he was the only Sony rider left in the pack so has to chase alone.
Terciado and Barredo battle for the last KoM prime before the mountains top finish, it is another second category and Terciado manages to take it ahead of Barredo. (Pecharroman is 4th here)
Virtual mtn standings:
Barredo 98 KoM points
Madrazo 96
Terciado 92
Contador 72
Solis 66
Valverde 54
Pecharroman 54
Mai 50
Intxausti 46
Solis crosses alone four minutes later, his chances of taking the polkadots again surely having disappeared.
The pack cross this penultimate climb just under six minutes down with Maxim Iglinski
.
Pedraza is another three minutes back, it is going to be a long day for the Sony Ericsson rider.
It is a long way to the final climb and on the valley road the break having rode over all the earlier climbs see's the clock board methodically count off the gap between them and the peloton. Pecharroman takes the last sprint ahead of Barredo and Camano but as they reach the foot of the climb the lead is just over a minute.
Costagli and Ji have been quiet on the primes but both now use this chance to jump clear. They are both young riders eager to show what they can do.
As the pack begin to overtake the previous breakaways it begins to split up and Santander team time trial clear as Tenorio, Lopez Garcia, Arroyo, Valls, Madrazo and Gonzalo find themselves clear with just former breakaway Rohregger.
There is still 10km to go in the climb and they catch the lead duo and they pause for a moment as they swarm past.
Ji, Rohregger and Gonzalo lose touch with the lead group which leaves us with 11 at the front.
6km to go then and we have:
Lead Group in which Santander have five riders here in Lopez Garcia, Madrazo, Tenorio, Valls and Arroyo. Festina have Serpa and Contador with Intxausti, Sella, Machado and young Italian Costagli.
then
Abal, Rohregger, Valverde, Gomez Marchante, Denifl, Popovich, Plaza, Ji and Marquez at 1.10
Menchov is back to his mediocre ways at 2.45 and Pedraza is making no progress back at 6.07.
The Santander dominance though is put into question as Madrazo suddenly finds himself at the front with 5.5km to.
He looks around and see's Serpa, Arroyo and Costagli slipping off the back.
Madrazo decides it's time to put the killer blow in as they go under the 5km to go banner.
Contador responds smoothly and as Madrazo sits down Contador rockets past the stunned red jersey.
It seems to have caught Madrazo by surprise who was hoping perhaps to settle into a comfortable rhythm as he has done before on recent climbs. Realising that this was how the two first week mountain stages slipped away he battles back to Contador's wheel.
Behind Sella, Intxausti and the surprising Lopez Garcia are clear in 3rd, 4th and 5th again it looks as though Tenorio is struggling to be Madrazo's lead domestique.
Tenorio is sticking to Machado's wheel who is a little way behind the trio in 3rd, 4th and 5th. We can also see Valverde powering back looking to save his podium hopes.
3.5km to go: Sella and Intxausti get across to Contador and Madrazo, Madrazo looks around for a team-mate and is relieved to see Lopez Garcia. Machado is trying hard to get across behind.
Just under 3km to go and bouyed by Madrazo's lack of absolute dominance Contador looks to grab himself a bit of gloryt by attacking again.
As Madrazo tries to move past Sella and Intxausti to chase his teammate Lopez Garcia drops back. Valverde meanwhile has caught Tenorio and Machado.
Further back Abal is leading a group containing Popovich, Gomez Marchante, Marquez, Valls, Denifl, Plaza, Serpa and Arroyo.
As we approach the 1km to go banner it appears as if Madrazo has caught a second wind as he has clambered his way up to the wheel of Contador gapping Intxausti and Sella.
As the sprint for victory begins, it looks like Contador has been broken once more.
As Contador fades, Madrazo just gets faster and faster.
It is win number four for Madrazo, he had a tougher day today but showed battling qualities.
Contador looks despondent with second place, but he underlined that he is the second best rider in the Vuelta today taking the fight to Madrazo. Intxausti beats Sella home and he is looking a little more confident in sealing his second career Vuelta podium.
Machado could not quite live with the lead four today however he does hold off Valverde, who after making steady progress in the last few days had to fight for survival here.
Lopez Garcia finishes a brilliant 7th on the day, he perhaps gave Madrazo a moral boost earlier on in the climb. Tenorio struggled a bit but did put good time into the hapless Gomez Marchante and Abal who finish behind Popovich today.
Denifl, Marquez, Valls and Plaza finished pretty much with this with Arroyo and Serppa a minute further back.
GC
Tomorrow we time trial up the Angiliru, the podium places look secure despite that and Bolo del Mundo to come. The places between 4th and 6th look like they will go right to the wire, Sella moves up to 4th today as he rode with Intxausti and last years winner Valverde slipped back to 6th. Tenorio took decent time back off of Gomez Marcante and Abal who remian well clear of Popovich. Pedraza slips back to 15th behind Valls.
Points
GC candidates dominate now taking up places 1,2,5,6,7 and 10. But with the mountain stages and flat stage split half and hald Roelandts and Van Stayen having survived today can still make a 3rd place.
Mountains
Barredo has been lazy about gathering points but has been in the right breakaways to gather points. Terciado should place highly in this competition now have a monster day of points gathering. Solis has missed out and with Valverde and Intxausti likely to pick up points on stage 20 he needs to look to attack.
Youth
Tenorio probably sealed his second place here with a solid ride today, Kritskiy in 5th is most at threat though he should do well in the MTT tomorrow though Marquez was better today and closed down on him.
Teams
Santader started to team time trial away at the bottom of the last climb and inevitably took huge chunks towards beuilding nearly an hour on Vesuvio now. Wiggle move solidly into third as Festina again had problems with their third rider. Pendleton's slipped back with another pretty dismal showing from their team leader Menchov.
