Bauke Mollema takes overall lead as Contador denied by technical problems
Filippo Savini (Colnago-CSF Inox) won the third stage of the Vuelta a Castilla y León, the Queen stage between Benavente and Laguna de Peces, after attacking in the final kilometres of the stage. The 25-year-old Italian finished 7 seconds ahead of Bauke Mollema (Rabobank) and his own teammate Domenico Pozzovivo at the end of the mountainous 157km stage.
After several attempts to get away in the early part of the stage, a group of seven riders managed to escape after 22km. Francisco Javier Aramendia (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Marko Kump (Geox-TMC), Adrian Palomares (Andalucía-Caja Granada), Joaquin Sobrino (Caja Rural), Gianluca Brambilla (Colnago CSF Inox), Rui Sousa and Raul Alarcón (Barbot) were allowed to get away; by the 50km point they led by 4’50”, which was to be the high watermark of the group’s advantage.
Under the impetus of Saxo Bank-SunGard, Movistar and Rabobank the gap steadily fell though, and as the septet arrived at the foot of El Peñón, the first of the day’s big climbs, it had been cut to less than 2’30”.
As the seven riders hit the climb, which featured sections of up to 16%, they began to drop away from the front one by one. Behind them the Saxo Bank-SunGard team of defending champion Alberto Contador was winding up the pace and steadily reducing the size of the main field.
At 3km from the top disaster struck for Alberto Contador (Saxo Bank-SunGard) as a technical problem forced him to stop and lose contact with the chasing group.
Alarcón was the sole member of the breakaway by the time he got to the top of the climb; he led over the top 14 seconds ahead of group of five riders, which was made up of John Darwin Atapuma and Nairo Quintana (Colombia es Pasión-Café de Colombia), Giovanny Manuel Báez (EPM-UNE), Igor Antón (Euskaltel-Euskadi) and Domenico Pozzovivo (Colnago).
Contador followed over the top of the climb 42 seconds back and appeared to be isolated.
On the descent the group of five riders steadily reeled in Alarcón and Dario Cioni (Team Sky), Tom Slagter and Laurens Ten Dam (both Rabobank) joined from behind.
Contador chasing urgently with Juanma Garate and Bauke Mollema (both Rabobank) on his wheel; neither was willing to come past as Slagter and Ten Dam were up the road ahead of them. Luckily for the defending champion though, Xavier Tondo (Movistar) was there and he was willing and able to help the chase.
With 36km to go though, the gap between the two groups was 45 seconds.
As the race began to come together a number of riders joined the Contador group, including Richie Porte and Jesus Hernández from Saxo Bank-SunGard. Contador finally had the help he needed and the two of them to charge of the chase. Although the sweeping roads of the descent were fast and easy for the breakaways, what was now a peloton behind them steadily closed the gap.
With 25km to go the main group made contact with the leaders and, with the road still sloping downwards, Garate immediately accelerated and was able to open up a small lead. He was unable to get far though, as Saxo Bank-SunGard was in no mood to relinquish its control of the race.
As they approached the final climb to the finish the Euskaltel-Euskadi team began to amass behind Contador’s team; as the pace slowed though, it was Slagter of Rabobank that attacked and Cioni and Rafael Infantino (EPM-UNE) followed him.
Cioni and Infantino were both dangerous men in the overall standings, at just 6 seconds behind race leader Francisco Ventoso (Movistar), who was a long way behind by now in the gruppetto.
With 18km to go the three riders led the peloton by 10 seconds; Saxo Bank-SunGard failed to panic though, and continued to set a steady pace on the front.
12km to go, as the final climb began, the lead had opened up to 30 seconds; as the climb really started though, Infantino found himself dropped by the other two as they continued to open up their lead over the Saxo Bank-SunGard led peloton.
At the front of the main field Contador now just had Hernández with him, while Igor Antón lurked behind him with Euskaltel-Euskadi teammate Mikel Nieve. Behind them, benefiting from the work of their teammate up the road, were Garate and Mollema.
There was still no panic on the front of the bunch but, with 6km to go to the top, the gap to the two fugitives ahead had been closed slightly to 35 seconds.
With 4km to go Ten Dam, Contador and Atapuma (Colombia) jumped off the front of the peloton, which had been making little progress on the three leaders. They had closed to within 30 seconds of the three leaders at the 3km to go banner, when Ten Dam launched an attack in a bid to get across to Slagter up front.
Suddenly, a move from Savini saw him bridge across to Slagter and Cioni, catching the long-standing breakaway pair at 1.5km to go; the Dutchman was soon dropped by the two Italians though, as they continued towards the line.
Inside the final 2km disaster struck for Contador for the second time in the race as he suffered another technical problem. The race was at full-gas at this point so he had little choice but to watch his rivals ride away; he waited for teammate Hernandez and the two of them unhurriedly made their way to the finish.
Just before the flamme rouge, marking just 1km to go, Savini attacked and dropped Cioni and soloed up to the line. The Sky rider, who’s been in front of the race since the bottom of the climb, had no answer to the acceleration of Savoni and was caught and passed by Mollema, Pozzovivo and Antón.
Savini had timed his move to perfection and continued accelerating towards the line, where he zipped up his jersey and crossed with both arms raised. Mollema came over ahead of Pozzovivo to take second place, and the Dutchman’s finish proved to be enough to put him into the race lead.
Contador crossed the line with Hernandez 2’52” behind.