Leopard Trek lead out disrupted by team car diversion; Juan José Cobo profits from split peloton
Juan Jose Haedo (Saxo Bank-SunGard) cruised to his first ever victory in a Grand Tour in what should have been a closely fought bunch sprint on stage sixteen of the Vuelta a España into Haro. The Argentinean was the best placed rider, close to the head of the speeding peloton, when Daniele Bennati’s Leopard Trek lead out man went right – down the team car diversion – when the course went left inside the final few hundred metres.
Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Cannondale) was right on the wheel of Bennati and almost ground to a halt as he fought to decide which Leopard Trek rider to follow. In the confusion that followed Haedo was virtually the only rider to get around the bend at full speed, and found himself alone as he entered the finishing straight. He was able to sit up and celebrate as he all but freewheeled to an uncontested victory.
Alessandro Petacchi (Lampre-ISD) and Bennati sprinted for all they were worth to try to catch up with Haedo, but neither could get close to the celebrating Saxo Bank-SunGard rider.
“This means a lot to me, because I am the first Argentine to win a stage in a Grand Tour,” Haedo said. “It’s a special feeling for me, because I spend part of the year living in Spain in Girona, so it’s almost like winning at home. This means a lot to Argentine cycling and I am proud to become the first to make this mark in history.
“This is a confirmation for me that I am one of the best sprinters in the world,” he contiuned. “There are less sprint opportunities than before in the grand tours, so to win today against a solid field of sprinters means a lot to me. I have sacrificed a lot to be in my best shape in this Vuelta.”
As well as causing confusion with the sprinters, the incident created gaps for the riders at the top of the overall classification. The first four riders were the only ones finishing in the same time, with the next six given a time two seconds behind. Race leader Juan José Cobo (Geox-TMC) was the last of these, and so took a further two seconds out of second place rider Chris Froome (Team Sky), who was in the next group, four seconds back.
This two second gap between the top two at the finish was thought to have cancelled out by the time bonus for third place at the second intermediate sprint of the day. Initially Froome was thought to have taken the place, but the race commissaires looked at the sprint again after the stage and awarded it to Maxime Monfort (Leopard Trek).
Froome is now twenty-two seconds behind Cobo, and third place Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky) was even less lucky. The British champion was in the third group over the line, seven seconds back, and so his deficit to Cobo has grown to 51 seconds.
As usual, the stage was dominated by a long breakaway from Andalucia-Caja Granada, in the form of Antonio Cabello and Jesus Rosendo, and Cofidis, with Julien Fouchard. The three riders escaped inside the first kilometre, with Rosendo the last to be caught with just over ten kilometres to go.
A rare chance or the sprinters in such a mountainous Vuelta
The 203.6km stage between the Villa Romana La Olmeda (Palencia) and Haro was to be one of the very few stages in the 2011 Vuelta that was to be suited to the sprinters. With no classified climbs on the route, the one thing that was to provide anything like an obstacle was the hilltop town of Alarcia with 70km to go.
The long, straight roads to the finish would make things very difficult for the inevitable breakaway and, with so few opportunities in the race, there was no way that they’d allow anybody to make it to the finish.
Many were expecting a duel between Bennati and Sagan but, having got through the tough stages of the weekend, Haedo was confident.
“I have big hopes for today,” he said at the start. “I survived the mountains for today’s stage. My condition is good. Today’s finish is a much better one for me than the previous ones.”
Guess which teams have made it into the breakaway…
The opening attack of the stage came in the very first kilometre, and it was no surprise that the three riders were from Andalucia-Caja Granada and Cofidis, since they had been in virtually every break of the race so far. With the stage almost certain to end in a sprint though, the trio’s attack was never going to be anything other than fruitless. It was even less of a surprise that no other riders wanted to waste their energy, and nobody even tried to go with them.
Cabello, Rosendo and Fouchard were obviously of no interest at all to Geox-TMC, in fact the break would prove useful and take pressure off the team. Their presence up the road would prevent any of Cobo’s immediate rivals – particularly Froome – from taking any of the bonus seconds available at the intermediate sprints. The Spanish team allowed their lead to grow to 8’12” by the 32km point, before there was any reaction.
Lampre-ISD and Liquigas-Cannondale came forward to keep things control on behalf of sprinters Petacchi and Sagan respectively. Between them they reduced the gap to the three leaders to 5’24” at the 74km point, but then allowed it to grow again as the race approached the feedzone in the middle of the stage.
With 90km to go the trio led by seven minutes but, as Garmin-Cervélo, Leopard Trek and Saxo Bank-SunGard joined the chase, it began to fall more suddenly than before. Working for their own sprinters, in the shape of Heinrich Haussler, Bennati and Petacchi, the three teams pulled it down to 4’11” with 60km to go.
Passing through the town of Pradoluengo, with 56km to go, Alessandro Spezialetti (Lampre-ISD) crashed in the middle of the peloton. The Italian appeared to be the only rider affected, but looked as though he had broken his right collarbone as he sat down on the roadside and did not get back up.
Leopard Trek tries to split the peloton as the breakaway goes down to one
With a slight lull in the chase, the gap opened up to almost 4’30”, but by 50km to go it was back to 4’20”. At this point though, on an exposed stretch of straight road, Leopard Trek hit the front with Fabian Cancellara to see if they could split the peloton.
The peloton was stretched into a long line, but with no real crosswind the pace just failed to cause any breaks. The gap to the leaders shrank quickly though, and at the 30km banner it was down to 2’17”.
With the three breakaway riders’ days apparently numbered, the two Andalucia-Caja Granada riders turned their attention to the only available prize: the stage’s most aggressive rider.
With 25km to go Rosendo put in a little attack, which was immediately pulled back by Fouchard. A few kilometres later the move was repeated by Cabello but, as Fouchard followed this, Rosendo went over the top and the Frenchman was unable to react.
At the 20km banner Rosendo was on his way to wearing the red race number on the following stage, but he was just 1’07” ahead of the charging peloton. With their chance over, Cabello and Fouchard quickly drifted back, and were caught with 16km to go.
Disaster for the green jersey as a crash strikes
Just before the 15km to go banner there was a crash in the peloton involving green jersey Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha). Rafal Majka (Saxo Bank-SunGard) appeared to the most seriously affected as the rest remounted, but Rodriguez was far from happy as he struggled to get going again.
The double stage winner spent some time at his team car before drifting back to visit the race doctor with pain in his lower back and his left arm. Katusha teammate Aliaksandr Kuschynski dropped back to help him to the finish but the Rodriguez was not looking comfortable. Further teammates Alberto Losada and then Joan Horrach also came back, but the pace was very slow and they had little hope of rejoining the peloton before it reached the finish line.
The last remaining seconds of Rosendo’s lead melted away and he was caught shortly before the intermediate sprint in Anguciana with 10.1km to go. Spotting the Froome was going to try and steal a few seconds on the line the Geox-TMC team seized control. David De La Fuente was, once again, Cobo’s most valuable teammate, starting his sprint early and crossing the line first.
Froome tries to close the gap but is closed out by Garmin-Cervélo and Leopard Trek
Froome was on the wheel of Haussler and was unable to come around the Australian sprinter. The Kenyan-born Briton looked to have taken the third place though, and the two bonus seconds, but Monfort was later adjudged to have beaten him on the opposite side of the road.
With 8.5km to go Fouchard made a brief attempt to take the aggressive rider award from Rosendo, by putting in an attack. On the flat straight road there was no way for him to get far away though, and he was swept up again almost immediately.
HTC-Highroad took control into the streets of Haro, but the American team appeared to have peaked too soon and, with 2.5km to go, Leopard Trek took over. The high pace around the sweeping roads and roundabouts was having the desired effect of earlier with a number of groups splitting from the back of the peloton; although none of the overall contenders was caught out.
Leopard Trek has it on a plate until it all goes horribly wrong
Cancellara led into the final kilometre with what looked like a perfect lead out for Bennati right behind him. One final roundabout with 300 metres to go though, was to undo all of the good work done, as Wagner got things spectacularly wrong.
The course took the left side of the roundabout, with the team cars to be diverted right. Wagner went right.
With his lead out man going the wrong way Bennati hesitated and Sagan, on his wheel, suddenly didn’t know which Leopard Trek rider to follow. The Slovakian champion ended up going straight on, but managed to brake hard enough to stop before he hit the barriers.
In all the confusion Haedo was the only rider to neither brake nor hesitate and he flew around the roundabout way ahead of the rest. Having to get themselves back up to speed again, Petacchi and Bennati sprinted hard to catch up but couldn’t get close to the Argentinian, who took his – and his country’s – first ever Grand Tour victory.
Still nursed by his teammates, Rodriguez rolled slowly over the line 11’01” later, but he was not the last to finish as Majka came in 18’49” back.