Nibali rules Spanish Grand Tour, but must face three mountains stages before crowned king
Vincenzo Nibali will wear a red jersey today in Solares, in northern Spain. It is a confirmation he is Italy’s rising star and a reminder why he came here, to win the Vuelta a España.
The Italian from Sicily took the leader’s red jersey yesterday after finishing second to Spaniard Joaquím Rodríguez (Katusha) on 14th stage, a mountaintop finish in Peña Cabarga. His success came as former race leader, Igor Antón (Euskaltel-Euskadi) headed to the hospital with a broken right elbow. Antón crashed with only 6.2 kilometres to race.
“I only heard of Antón’s crash at the finish. I am sorry for him. I would have liked to take this leader’s jersey in another way. But these things happen in a race, remember, for example, what happened on the Giro d’Italia stage to Montalcino,” Nibali told Italian newspaper, La Gazzetta dello Sport.
“Out of respect for Antón, I thought for a moment not to go on the podium for the jersey, but it would not have been right for the sponsors. I limited my enthusiasm on the podium, but I was happy all the same.”
Nibali put on the jersey this morning, received complements from his team-mates and then headed to the start of today’s stage in Solares. He keeps the jersey and leads ahead of three Spaniards: Rodríguez by four seconds, and Ezequiel Mosquera (Xacobeo-Galicia) and Xavier Tondo (Cervélo TestTeam) by 50 seconds.
Irishman Nicolas Roche (AG2R La Mondiale) is in fifth at 2’11”.
“There are two hard stages to come, but working in my favour is the time trial [46km Wednesday in Peñafiel – ed.]. I have faith, I want this Vuelta,” said Nibali.
“I know how to manage a race and I have already shown I can carry myself well over three weeks.”
Nibali finished seventh last year at the Tour de France behind Alberto Contador. This year, he helped Liquigas-Doimo team-mate Ivan Basso win his second Giro d’Italia. On the way, he won a stage for himself and held the race leader’s jersey for three days.
Nibali lost the jersey when he crashed on the muddy stage to Montalcino. That day was on his mind yesterday when he took the leader’s jersey and Antón crashed.
Marco Giovannetti from Milan in Northern Italy was the last Italian, 20 years ago in 1990, to come to Spain and win the Vuelta a España overall title and the leader’s jersey – then it was yellow.
To take the overall title, Nibali faces three more mountain stages: today’s stage to Lagos de Covadonga, the stage to Cotobello tomorrow and the stage to Bola del Mundo on Saturday, the day before the race ends in Madrid.