Fairlytale home victory in Bilbao for the Basque rider; Team Sky tries and fails to take the final opportunity to unseat Juan José Cobo
Igor Antón (Euskaltel-Euskadi) marked the Vuelta a España’s first visit to the Basque Country in 33 years in style with a solo victory on his home roads, into the region’s capital Bilbao. The climber, who started the race with the intention of taking the overall victory, has rescued his Vuelta by taking the win on probably the most important day in his team’s history.
Antón escaped from Marzio Bruseghin (Movistar), the final member of a four-man breakaway group, on the second of two ascents of the Alto El Vivero climb, then soloed down the descent and the few flat kilometres to the finish. Bruseghin managed to hold on to take second place, some 41 seconds behind an emotional Antón, with Dominik Nerz (Liquigas-Cannondale) outsprinting Haimar Zubeldia (RadioShack) – another Basque rider – to take third.
“I was targeting the overall victory and I imagined that I’d enter Bilbao with the red jersey,” said Anton after the stage. “Unfortunately, the Vuelta didn’t go as I wanted, so I changed my goals and switched my focus onto this particular stage where I was at home, in front of my friends and family.
“The uphill finishes at the Angliru and Peña Cabarga brought my moral back to the top and I got to believe that I could do well here, but I don’t know where I’ve found the strength for winning.”
Antón is from the village of Galdakao, close to the base of the final climb, and so knew it better than anybody else in the peloton.
“The climb of El Vivero is my daily bread at training,” explained the Basque rider. “For the team, it’s historical! For me as well, because it’s my first pro win from a breakaway group and it opens possibilities for my future.
“And now Euskaltel-Euskadi has won a stage in each Grand Tour this year,” he added.
The race for the overall classification, between red jersey Juan José Cobo (Geox-TMC) and Chris Froome (Team Sky), who trails him by just thirteen seconds, was also fought out on the final climb. After thinning out the peloton in the preceding twenty kilometres with a long turn on the front from Thomas Löfkvist, Team Sky set the pace on the Vivero to try to put Cobo into difficulty.
Froome attacked with less than a kilometre to climb, but Cobo marked him immediately; while the two of them managed to get a few seconds ahead, along with Mikel Nieve (Euskaltel-Euskadi), they were reeled in by the peloton on the descent and finished side by side in the middle of the bunch, 1’33” behind the local winner.
Unable to distance Cobo, nor take any bonus seconds at the finish or intermediate sprints, Froome still trails by those thirteen seconds, and may have missed his last chance to take the red jersey.
The stage was dominated by the long breakaway from Antón and Bruseghin, who were with Alexsandr Dyachenko (Astana) and Antón’s Basque teammate Gorka Verdugo until the closing stages. The peloton looked like pulling them back at one stage, before Antón’s late attack, but was then dominated by the battle between Froome and Cobo, which was not concerned with the winner of the stage.
The Basque country makes a welcome return
With its often-violent separatist movement perceived to have been a threat to the security of the Vuelta a España, this was to be the race’s first visit to the Basque country in 33 years, following the ceasefire announced by the main separatist organisation ETA. As one of Spanish cycling’s great heartlands, and provider of many of its champions, the Basque stage of the race was almost certain to provide a great deal of excitement in one way or another.
All eyes would, obviously, be on the local Euskaltel-Euskadi team, which would be duty bound to make the race in front of the expected hordes of orange-clad fans.
“We don’t arrive in the Basque Country in the situation we hoped for,” said Miguel Madariaga, who founded the teamin 1994. “Our ambition was to have Igor Antón in the red jersey.”
The 158.5km stage would begin at the previous day’s finish in Noja, in the Cantabrian region of race leader Juan José Cobo, crossing the 3rd category Puerto de la Granja and Puerto de las Muñecas, where it would make its historic entrance into the Bizkaia region.
After passing close to the finish line in Bilbao, the race was to take in two finishing loops based on the 2nd category Alto El Vivero. The last of these was just 14.3km from the end, giving a possible chance for a late attack to make it to the finish.
The fight for the stage, and Basque honour, was not to be the only battle of the day though, with just thirteen seconds separating Cobo and Froome at the start, this stage offered probably the last real chance for the Kenyan-born Briton to win the race overall.
“Today is our last chance to win the Vuelta,” said Froome at the start. “We have the fighting spirit for doing it.”
The break is delayed until the first sprint can be contested
A number of attempted breakaways in the early kilometres were stifled thanks to the positioning of the first intermediate sprint in Laredo after just 19.7km. Team Sky took control of the front as the line approached to try set up Froome to take a few bonus seconds. Unfortunately for the Briton though, not only was Cobo’s Geox-TMC teammate David De La Fuente was there to police things as usual, but things were also made more complicated by the battle for the green jersey.
Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha), who took the green jersey back yesterday won the sprint, with De La Fuente in second place and Bauke Mollema (Rabobank) – the man who Rodriguez took the jersey from – in third. As well as taking that last solitary point, Mollema edged two seconds closer to Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky) and his place on the final step of the podium.
After 29km, as the Puerto de la Granja approached, Bruseghin, Dyachenko and, predictably, two riders from Euskaltel-Euskadi in Antón and Verdugo escaped. As usual, since none of the four riders was of any immediate danger in the overall classification, with Briseghin the best at 9’58” down, Cobo’s Geox-TMC team was happy to let them go.
Having crossed the Granja, the quartet was five minutes clear, which was up to 5’35” as they crossed the Muñecas and Antón led them into the Basque country; it was to reach its maximum of 6’09” as they passed through the feedzone after 87.8km.
With Bruseghin threatening the thirteenth place of Daniel Martin (Garmin-Cervélo) and even the seventh place of Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Cannondale), the two teams came forward to lead the peloton as the race entered the city of Bilbao for the first time.
As the breakaway rode past the iconic Guggenheim Museum, with 59km to go, the gap had slipped below five minutes, and with 50km to go it was down to 4’36”.
As Antón, Verdugo, Bruseghin and Dyachenko hit the base of the 4.3km Vivero, they were met with a sea of orange, more usually seen on the great climbs of the Pyrénées, as the Basques welcomed back the race.
Team Sky takes control to try to put the red jersey into the red
Team Sky hit the front as the peloton approached the foot of the climb, with Geox-TMC attentively close to the front, and midway up the gap was down below four minutes as the British team tried to isolate Cobo and out him under pressure.
Briseghin had been leading all the way up, but Antón took over on the front as they threaded their way through the Alpe d’Huez-like crowds; Verdugo led them over the top for the first time though, with 44.4km to go.
Thomas Löfkvist was doing all the work for Team Sky, with Wiggins in second wheel, and they led the peloton over the top just 2’36” behind. The main group was reduced to only around thirty riders, but Cobo was still there with De La Fuente in support and still looked comfortable. The speed was kept high by Löfkvist on the descent and the flat run back to Bilbao.
With 28km to go Alberto Losada (Katusha) attacked to try to bridge across to the leaders, while up ahead Dyachenko was dropped by the other three ahead and was unable to make it back up.
As Löfkvist swung off Joaquim Rodriguez put in a small attack, followed by Chris Anker Sørensen (Saxo Bank-SunGard) but it was quickly neutralised and the speed visibly dropped.
The three remaining leaders hit the bottom of the Vivero for the second time and Verdugo dropped away almost immediately, leaving just Antón and Bruseghin. The peloton arrived less than two minutes later and swept up Losada; almost inevitably, Rodriguez attacked as soon as the road began to slope upwards.
A Basque rider goes it alone in his local stage
At that moment Anton dropped Bruseghin and set off alone up the climb that he knows so well; Thomas Rohregger (Leopard Trek) caught and passed Rodriguez with a Chris Anker Sørensen (Saxo Bank-SunGard) and Mathieu Perget (AG2R La Mondiale) on his wheel; they quickly caught and dropped Verdugo.
Wiggins was now leading the peloton 2’12” behind Antón but the British champion wasn’t’ putting much into the pace and the local rider’s lead was growing. He began to increase the pace though, with Froome on his wheel, but Cobo was right behind him.
Sørensen and Perget dropped Rohregger on the steepest part of the climb, while behind them Wiggins was dancing out of the saddle but still not putting anybody into difficulty; he kept increasing the pace, and succeeded in dropping Rodriguez; Nibali was also losing contact, but managing to keep the peloton in sight.
Up ahead the Basque fans were going crazy as their man kept powering towards the top, and he crested it 30 seconds ahead of Bruseghin.
Froome tries to take his final opportunity to get into the red
Finally, with 15km to go, and just 700 metres to climb, Froome attacked, but Cobo was right on his wheel. They quickly caught Sørensen and Perget and Froome went again; once again though, the red jersey was glued to his back wheel, and they crossed the summit of the climb 1’53” behind Antón.
Mikel Nieve (Euskaltel-Euskadi) was the only rider that could go with the two leaders and he was keen to keep the pressure on as he had the chance to move up in the overall classification; Cobo and Froome looked at one another though, and a short way into the descent the Liquigas-Cannondale team pulled them back. Sørensen was still ahead though, and chasing hard to catch up with Bruseghin.
With 10km to go Antón led Bruseghin by 32 seconds and the Basque managed to keep the Movistar rider at that distance all the way to the bottom of the climb. At around 6km to go the descent finished, leaving flat roads into the finish, which was where former Italian time trial champion Bruseghin could have an advantage over skinny climber Antón.
At the 5km banner Antón had widened the gap slightly to 33 seconds though, just as Zubeldia attacked to try to get third place on his home roads. He was soon joined by Nerz, who tried to drop the RadioShack rider as they steadily gained on the distant figure of Sørensen.
Antón rode into the final kilometre with his lead over Bruseghin touching forty seconds and had plenty of time to soak up the applause from the Basque fans in the finishing straight, who were going as crazy as those on the climb. He was able to enjoy a long victory celebration as he slowed to a crawl in the finishing straight and milked the local applause, shaking hands with Madariaga as the team car pulled alongside him.
Bruseghin grimaced his way up the final few hundred metres to cross the line 41 seconds back, while behind him Sørensen was caught and Nerz out sprinted Zubeldia. Just behind them De La Fuente led the peloton – and his team leader Juan José Cobo – safely across the line to preserve his red jersey and with little opportunity in the next two stages, effectively win the Vuelta.
Mollema finished tenth, taking six points on the line, which bring him to within two of Rodriguez, keeping the fight for the green jersey very much alive.