A nice flat time trial after the double mountain header which saw several time limit eliminations yesterday right? Why not add a little climb at the end eh just to spice things up? This one will do it's been used in the Vuelta a couple of times before so the riders will know it well.
The Alto de Angliru!
A brutal 12.5km averaging 10% and a whopping 23.6% in places this is one of the most feared climbs in cycling. Today the cyclist's will have no-one to pace them and it is a pure race of truth. There is a flat first 18km though so chrono men will at least have a chance to set their stall out but must save most of their tanks for the climb.
Jerome Coppel a previous stage winner this year starts fairly early.
His team came here to collect a stage win and Coppel, who was second in the opening time trial duly delivered after a number of attempts from the aggressive Milka team. They came second to Jack Wolfskin in the TTT, the team in Orange lost three riders yesterday Joost Posthuma is keen to set down some good checks for his team leader Plaza here.
Also worth keeping an eye on early doors is the recovering climber David Arroyo who struggled through the Pyrenees and is starting to prove useful once again for his team leader and race leader Madrazo.
These three make up our provisional top three before after we have 60 or so riders finished.
Name
1st
2nd
Final
1
Arroyo
14.01
26.31
73.56
2
Posthuma
13.22
25.23
74.18
3
Coppel
13.19
25.18
74.22
4
Cornu
13.29
25.36
74.39
5
Danacek
13.38
25.46
74.42
So it is fairly clear that the climbers will have an advantage today with the climb up the Angliru taking up most of the riders time in the time trial. This is further evidenced by some decent times by the likes of Tom Danielson Christoph Mai Aleksej Kunshin Branislav Samoilev Francisco Perez Sanchez Yeison Delgado
and Ian Bibby
This is proving a highly unpredictable time trial with the camara's constantly following the wrong riders! Mai of Wikipedia manages to produce the best out of this batch narrowly eclipsing Netsle's Delgado as both finish well inside Arroyo's time.
Name
Final
1
Mai
73.26
2
Delgado
73.28
3
Arroyo
73.56
4
Perez Sanchez
73.58
5
Danielson
74.02
6
Bibby
74.10
7
Kunshin
74.12
8
Samailov
74.12
9
Posthuma
74.18
10
Coppel
74.22
You suspect the big GC candidates are going to finish well inside of these times however so whilst it is nice for Mai, he knows it is just a matter of time. Christophe Riblon Teodoro Costagli Thomas Faiers Carlos Barredo Konstantin Siutsou
and Mwangi Samwel
also go pretty well. With reluctant mountains points collecter Barredo going into the new temporary lead.
Name
Final
1
Barredo
73.06
2
Mai
73.26
3
Riblon
73.26
4
Delgado
73.28
5
Samwel
73.31
6
Siutsou
73.32
7
Faiers
73.46
8
Arroyo
73.56
9
Perez Sanchez
73.58
10
Costagli
73.58
Barredo's experience of this climb perhaps showing here and that he has some legs left after the numerous climbs in this race.
Nico Keinath has the all round skills to do well today.
He produces a good time close to that of Barredo's, but Florentino Marquez manages to produce a sensational new best eclipsing Barredo by a massive 1 minute and 31 seconds!
The provisional standings then:
Name
Final
1
Marquez
71.35
2
Barredo
73.06
3
Keinath
73.20
4
Mai
73.26
5
Riblon
73.26
6
Delgado
73.28
7
Samwel
73.31
8
Siutsou
73.32
9
Faiers
73.46
10
Arroyo
73.56
Marquez has been a little bit anonymous here helping his leader Gomez Marchante to a top ten, though perhaps Marquez may have done better on his own? Though clearly now we are getting into some serious competitors as Timofey Kritskiy sets a good time.
1
Marquez
71.35
2
Kritskiy
72.29
3
Barredo
73.06
4
Keinath
73.20
5
Mai
73.26
6
Riblon
73.26
7
Delgado
73.28
8
Samwel
73.31
9
Siutsou
73.32
10
Faiers
73.46
He and Marquez are battling for a decent youth classification position Kritskiy still holds about five minutes on Marquez for the last three stages which should be enough to secure the Russian a top five place.
His team won the team time trial but he has struggled to hang on to the contenders, which is something he has been able to do in previous years. This course is simply to mountainous for a rider who prefers a closer mix of mountains and Time Trials. Today is a better test for Plaza and he comes home in a new best time of 70 minutes and 45 seconds, the first rider under 71 minutes!
So Marquez's time has been toppled and behind Plaza is finishing the young Austrian Stefan Denifl who has battled hard throughout the race. He looks like falling short of a top ten on GC, but should secure a decent 3rd on the youth rankings.
He manages to push Marquez down to 3rd on the provisional standings too, a good rider this from Denifl.
Name
Final
1
Plaza
70.45
2
Denifl
71.24
3
Marquez
71.35
4
Menchov
72.04
5
Serpa
72.11
6
Valls
72.15
7
Kritskiy
72.29
8
Pedraza
72.34
9
Iglinski
72.45
10
Barredo
73.06
Into the top ten and Jaroslav Popovych didn't have the best of the early parts of this Vuelta.
He has looked in better form in the last week, though couldn't quite raise his game yesterday. Still Popo shows the form is there by producing a new best time - it's a brilliant time FIFTY seconds faster than Plaza.
The duo have had a ding dong battle behind the GC top six and today they are seperated by just eight seconds. Gomez Marchante losing eight of his thirty four second advantage on Abal, that will go down to the Bolo del Mundo between those two.
So going into our GC top seven the provisional stage standings see Popovich setting the benchmark ahead of three Spanish riders .
Name
Final
1
Popovich
69.45
2
Abal
70.44
3
Plaza
70.45
4
Gomez M
70.52
5
Denifl
71.24
6
Marquez
71.35
7
Menchov
72.04
8
Serpa
72.11
9
Valls
72.15
10
Kritskiy
72.29
Justo Tenorio came into the race as a sort of back up plan for Madrazo and he has played the part of super domestique at times.
However the young riders has just began to fall away a bit in the final parts of stages recently. He does manage to extend his GC advantage of Abal and Gomez Marchante today but fails to eclipse the time set by Popovich with a time of 70.27.
It is also an interesting day for Alejandro Valverde who did well in the late time trial in the Vuelta last year.
Clearly Valverde has still got a lot of energy left in the tank and could overtake Machado on GC for 5th place with a decent time of 70.10. Indeed with Machado just seven seconds ahead of him the Portuguese who struggled a bit yesterday is under pressure.
Tiago Machado was bought in as a potential GC contender the year and he has proved himself very capable indeed in this race.
But today he can only produce a decent time of 70.52, slipping behind Valverde.
Emanuele Sella was 40 seconds clear of Valverde after yesterdays stage. For Sella, this race has proved much tougher for him to dominate in the mountains which has seen the Italian uncharacteristically grovelling for back wheels quite often.
His time today is another in the 70 minutes, fast enough to hold onto 4th on GC with 70.31.
Popovoch then leads the provisional stage standings going into our top three on GC.
Name
Final
1
Popovich
69.45
2
Valverde
70.10
3
Tenorio
70.27
4
Sella
70.31
5
Abal
70.44
6
Plaza
70.45
7
Gomez M
70.52
8
Machado
70.52
9
Denifl
71.24
10
Marquez
71.35
Beñat Intxausti has battled hard to maintain his podium position and with a strong climbing team around him he has managed to so really well.
Today is his chance to prove he is up there with the best climbers alone and he does so managing to beat Valverde's time by five seconds. Still 20 seconds short of Popovich who clearly was in inspired form today.
Alberto Contador is not noted for being the best time triallist.
But todays test looks right up his alley and after really testing Madrazo yesterday he is stong form today. At the second check Contador was slightly inside of Popovich's effort which was an excellent effort and by the end of the climb Contador manages to set a new best of 69.27.
However we still have to wait for Angel Madrazo
The he rocket through the first check fifteen seconds faster than Popovoch, Intxausti and Contador.
By the second split, still on the flat roads remember he has gained half a minute on his closest rivals.
Coming up the mountain it is not too long before he has the previous best rider Contador in his sights.
Whilst the champion elect doesn't quite catch Contador he puts in an incredible effort to take his fifth stage win and third in a row at this year's Vuelta. His time is 67.48, that's one minute and 39 seconds faster than Contador - clearly there is no stopping this amazing rider.
Stage results
A stupendous performance from Madrazo, we can see here that perhaps Machado has been one of the overperformers of the race and Popovich an underperformer.
Mountains
Mountains points on offer today, pretty much wrap up the fourth competition for Madrazo to win alone at the Vuelta. Contador looks good odds to take runner up here.
Youth
Only four other under 25's within an hour of Madrazo, Marquez had a nice performance today, if Kritskiy has a bad climb on the Bolo del Mundo a fifth place is up for grabs.
