Bradley Wiggins rides himself into red as Chris Froome rides himself into the ground
David Moncoutié (Cofidis) took his fourth Vuelta a España stage in four years on the mountaintop finish of Estación de Esquí Alto de la Manzaneda. The veteran French climber managed to escape a large breakaway group, which had got away early in the stage, to finish 1’18” clear of his nearest chasers. Beñat Intxausti (Movistar) finished second, just ahead of Luis León Sanchez (Rabobank), having tried and failed to pull Moncoutié back in the last five kilometres.
As well as the stage victory, Moncoutié picked up enough mountains points to take the polka-dot jersey, which he hopes to hold onto for a fourth successive time.
With nobody in the breakaway group of immediate threat to the race lead of Chris Froome (Team Sky), the British team was content to allow it to build a stage-winning lead. On the final climb though, the team – led by Froome himself – lifted the pace to thin out the peloton to just a few dozen riders. Responding to an attack from former race leader Bauke Mollema (Rabobank), Bradley Wiggins took control of the pace at the front.
Just as he had on stage nine to La Covatilla, the British champion thinned out the peloton even further, which spelled the end for Froome. The main contenders crossed the line some 3’08 behind Moncoutié but, with second place Jakob Fuglsang dropped in the final kilometre, Wiggins had put himself into Froome’s vacant red jersey.
“This is a fantastic feeling to be leading the Vuelta,” said Wiggins after the stage. “I just enjoyed today; I’m pleased.
“I’ve been very consistent in the last few days,” he continued. “I’ve been very strong in the last two mountain stages and the time trial. As I was coming back from an injury, I didn’t know how it was going to be and it’s getting better and better; I didn’t expect to be in this position now.
“Me taking the jersey after Chris Froome was always going to happen,” Wiggins explained. “We’ve put the whole team on the front.
“Had I been fifth or sixth on GC, we would have done it the same way,” he added. “We stuck to the plan after the time trial. Chris had a fantastic time trial, the red jersey for a day was a bonus for the great form he showed.”
More reactions to follow
After a day of rest the Vuelta hits the mountains again
The 167km Verín and Estación de Esquí Alto de la Manzaneda was to be the third mountaintop finish of the race so far. Like the fourth stage to Sierra Nevada though, the road up to the final climb was not expected to be tough enough to create many big gaps between the overall favourites.
“The uphill to the station of Manzaneda is straight with some steep parts,” said local rider David Blanco (Geox-TMC) before the start. “Near the station, there are some possibilities to rest a bit. I don’t think the last part of the hill is difficult but there are a lot of curves.
“It’s an uncomfortable stage.”
Before the 19km climb to the finish, the peloton would have to tackle a zigzag profile that included the 3rd category, Alto de Fumaces, the 2nd category Alto da Gonza, and the 3rd category Alta de Ermida. The course was made for a breakaway group to get away and, depending on the wishes of the following peloton, potentially make it to the finish.
The biggest group of the race so far gets a long way ahead
After a number of attacks, and with Matteo Montaguti (AG2R La Mondiale) taking the maximum points over the top of the Alto de Fumaces, a group of sixteen riders managed to escape at the 30km point.
In the group were Moncoutié, Intxausti and Sanchez, with Montaguti, Sergio Paulinho (RadioShack), Evgeny Petrov (Astana), Vicente Reynes (Omega Pharma-Lotto), Michael Albasini (HTC-Highroad), Adrian Palomares and Vicente David Armengol (Andalucia-Caja Granada), Aitor Perez (Lampre-ISD), Juan Jose Oroz (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Stuart O’Grady (Leopard Trek), Juan Horrach (Katusha), Jonas Jörgensen (Saxo Bank-SunGard) and Manuel Quinziato (BMC Racing).
As had happened on virtually every day so far, Andalucia-Caja Granada and Cofidis had both managed to put men into the break; on this occasion though, the French team had, in Moncoutié, managed to insert a rider that was actually capable of winning a stage of this difficulty.
Team Sky was happy to let them all get away and they began to build a lead.
Before the sixteen riders could get too far, Fabio Duarte (Geox-TMC), Amets Txurruka (Euskaltel-Euskadi) and Matthais Frank (BMC Racing) managed to escape the peloton and try to ride across to them.
Duarte was the nearest thing to a danger to Froome’s overall lead, starting the day in 29th place 7’04” behind. This didn’t seem to worry Team Sky though, as it rode a steady tempo on the front of the peloton and allowed the big group to get several minutes clear.
As they hit the base of the Alto Da Gonza after 51.5km the leaders were 3’10” ahead, which was growing as Montaguti outsprinted Moncoutié for the points over the top. As Duarte Txurruka and Frank joined the larger group just before the feedzone after 80km the gap had opened to 5’37”, and by the foot of the Alto de Ermida it was up to 7’07” meaning that Duarte was now the virtual race leader.
Just before summit of the climb the break’s lead was to reach its maximum of 7’52”, but this was the point at which Team Sky began to increase the pace and it began to come down again.
Attacks in the break as the long final climb gets closer
With 30km to go Palomares and Jörgensen attacked the break, then Palomares dropped the Danish rider and set off alone. On a short descent on the approach to the final climb Jörgensen left the road into a ditch as he was trying to avoid the potholed surface; he managed to stay upright and continued, but was recaptured by the rest of the group.
The big breakaway group began to splinter as the climb began, and Moncoutié and Intxausti bridged up to the Palomares just before the 15km to go banner. Moncoutié went past and Intxausti managed to go with him, with Frank, Paolinho and O’Grady chasing up to them. The rest of the group followed them under the banner 35 seconds behind, seemingly all now out of contention.
Frank and O’Grady also managed to get up, followed by Paolinho, making it a group of six up front. Moncoutié continued to try to distance the rest, but they clung doggedly to his back wheel.
With 13.4km to go Paolinho jumped away from the six-man group and managed to get a small gap. Moncoutié set off after him alone and caught him with 13km to go; the Frenchman briefly sat with the Portuguese rider before attacking again, and this time he was able to get clear.
Through the 15km point the Team Sky led peloton was 5’28” behind, but the British team was running out of workers as Xabier Zandio pulled off the front and drifted back.
Up ahead Paolinho dropped back to Frank and Intxausti, who had left O’Grady and Palomares behind and, as Moncoutié passed under the 10km banner he was twenty seconds clear of the three chasers.
Luis León Sanchez, who had been left behind with the rest of the group and was seemingly out of contention, managed to pull his way across to the chasers to take the group up to four, but Moncoutié’s lead was slowly growing. He had opened it up slightly to 22 seconds at the 9km banner, but this had opened up to 45 seconds in the space of the next kilometre.
The break has the stage in the bag but Sky still has the red jersey to protect
The peloton was 5’31” behind at this point, meaning that the stage was almost certain to go to one of the breakaway riders; Team Sky’s main concern was now preventing Fabio Duarte from taking away Froome’s red jersey.
Vladimir Karpets (Katusha) attacked from the peloton, to serve as a stepping stone for the expected move from captain Joaquim Rodriguez. The tall Russian was followed by Chris Anker Sørensen (Saxo Bank-SunGard), his own Katusha teammate Daniel Moreno and Steven Kruijswijk (Rabobank), and the group quickly caught up with Reynes as the less accomplished climbers in the break began to drift backwards.
Froome himself was now on the front as the peloton began to pick up the stragglers with 9km to go but Vacansoleil-DCM came forward and the Dutch team pulled back the four riders.
Rodriguez attacked as soon as Karpets and Moreno were caught, but he was pounced upon immediately by Sørensen and Wiggins and the move came to nothing. Moreno attacked again though, with Mikel Nieve (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Sørensen, Kruijswijk and Jurgen Van Den Broeck (Omega Pharma-Lotto). Froome took control of the front once more and they were soon back in the fold and the Kenyan-born Briton in the red jersey continued to lead the peloton with Wiggins safely on his wheel.
With 6km to go Moncoutié had increased his lead to 1’07”, with the four chasers still together behind him.
The race leader himself is setting the tempo as he comes under continuous attack
Ruslan Pidgornyy (Vacansoleil-DCM) was the next to attack the peloton, to be followed by Tom Slagter (Rabobank) but Froome was able to close them down once more. With the flurry of activity the gap to the break was coming down to little more than five minutes, but Moncoutié was in no danger of beaing caught.
Sergey Lagutin was the next Vacansoleil-DCM rider to attack and the Uzbeki champion was allowed to go as Moreno jumped up to him. Sørensen joined the new escape, along with Nieve, just as it caught Jörgensen. The Dane, who had been in the break, assumed the lead position on the front of the small group for a few metres to try to get his leader Sørensen clear.
With 4km to go Moncoutié was 1’17” clear of his chasers as Sanchez attacked the other three. Their former companions were being steadily picked up by the peloton now, with Froome still setting a fierce but steady pace for Wiggins.
With the peloton approaching the 3km to go banner, Slagter took over the front of the peloton then Mollema attacked taking teammates Mollema and Kruijswijk, and stage nine winner Daniel Martin (Garmin-Cervélo) with him. They quickly caught the attacking group and Mollema went straight to the front, but Wiggins followed with most of the race favourites on his wheel. This spelled the end for Froome, who was unable to go with the pace of his leader.
Froome dropped
Under the flamme rouge, marking the final kilometre, Moncoutié was holding his own against his chasers, who were beginning to break up once more. The Frenchman kept the pressure on through the final barriered section, blowing kisses to the few fans that had made it up the mountain. He sat up to take his fourth stage in as many Vueltas and, with the points for taking the climb at the end of the stage, took the polka dot mountains jersey with it.
Wiggins was now leading the group of favourites into the final kilometres, stringing them out as he and Froome had done on stage nine to La Covatilla. This was having the effect of putting a number favourites in trouble, including Michele Scaponi (Lampre-ISD) and Denis Menchov (Geox-TMC). Fuglsang was still there though, poised to take Froome’s red jersey.
Just before the Wiggins led peloton reached the flamme rouge Rodriguez attacked, but Wiggins refused to panic and kept up his steady, but fast, tempo. Nibali took over the chase as the group of just over a dozen pursued the Catalan rider, then Wiggins took over again as they neared the finish. This increase in pace saw Fuglsang dropped, who was now almost 30 seconds back with Froome, and so Wiggins was riding himself into red.
Rodriguez crossed the line some 3’01” behind Moncoutié, but he had only gained seven seconds on his rivals, who were led over by David Bernabeu (Andalucia-Caja Granada).