Belgian Worlds favourite shows his form in lumpy finale
Philippe Gilbert (OmegaPharma-Lotto) won the nineteenth stage of the Vuelta a España between Piedrahita and Toledo after attacking from the front of the fractured peloton in the final few hundred metres. The Belgian finished just ahead of Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Transitions), with Filippo Pozzato (Katusha) leading the first group in just one second behind them.
Stage 19 was another transitional stage as the Vuelta treads water between the mountains and time trial in the northwest and Saturday’s appointment with the Bola del Mundo. The undulating 231.2km parcours was much longer and tougher than yesterday and, although it was a good sprinter’s stage on paper, the complicated finish would make it difficult to control.
“My team has some great work all day,” said Glibert after his victory. “I chose to not attack in the climb but stay in the bunch and under control until the final climb. Luis Leon Sanchez [Caisse d’Epargne] was the most dangerous guy there but there was a head wind and when I saw Millar doing the hard work of the chase, I was quite happy because I know his skills when it comes to driving the bunch.
“I decided to open the sprint for far out,” he explained. “I thought it was the best way to beat Tyler Farrar. It’s an honour of course to beat the second fastest sprinter in the world but above all it was a stage finish that suited me at perfection.
“Me to beat Farrar is less of a surprise uphill than if it had happened on a dead flat road,” he added.
The stage started slowly with the climb to the 2nd category Puerto de Chía starting almost immediately. The only action in the opening kilometres was between polka-dot jersey wearer David Moncoutié (Cofidis) and Serafin Martinez (Xacobeo-Galicia) sprinting for the mountain points after 14km, with Martinez coming out on top.
From then on, the stage followed a gently undulating profile and there was an almost immediate attack from Josep Jufre (Astana) and Dominik Roels (Milram); they were chased and joined by Manuel Ortega (Andalucia-Cajasur) and Xavier Florencio (Cervélo TestTeam), and the four riders formed the break of the day.
At the 50km mark, the quartet led the peloton by 6’37”; it was to peak at 10’47” after the 93km, with Liquigas-Doimo, HTC-Columbia and OmegaPharma-Lotto leading.
Gradually the lead began to reduce, but with 100km to go it still stood at more than 7 minutes. 20km later the lead had dropped to around 5 minutes, where it stabilised for a time before reducing once more; with 50km to go it was down to 3’40”.
Footon-Servetto moved forward to join the chase and at the 200km point, with just over 30km to go, the breakaway’s advantage was just over 2 minutes; at 20km to go it had dropped to 58 seconds.
On the big, wide highway on the approach to Toledo the breakaway riders, who’d been in the lead for more than 200km were now facing a stiff wind; the peloton reeled them in with 13km to go, perhaps slightly sooner than intended.
With the peloton all together the Lampre-Farnese Vini and Astana teams moved forward to set up the sprint for Grega Bole and Allan Davies respectively. With 5km to go though, an attack came in from Lagos de Covadonga stage winner Carlos Barredo (Quick Step), but he was pulled back by the accelerating peloton, which was led by Race leader Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Doimo) himself.
Barredo may not have got very far but his attack caused the speed to rise on the complicated, undulating roads and the peloton began to split into pieces.
With 3km to go Luis Leon Sanchez tried his luck and was joined by Andreas Stauff (Quick Step) and Matt Goss (HTC-Columbia). Stauff was dropped by the other two and they entered the final kilometres, chased by the Garmin-Transitions team.
As the two riders were caught Gilbert led, with Farrar on his wheel; in the last few hundred metres, in a possible preview of next month’s World Championships, the Belgian jumped and only the American was able to stay on his wheel.
Farrar was unable to come around Gilbert and the OmegaPharma-Lotto rider took his second stage of the race. Pozzato led the first group in but by this time the peloton was in tatters.
Nibali finished in sixth place, just behind third placed Peter Velits (HTC-Columbia) in the first group; both riders took what might be valuable seconds from most of their rivals. Second placed Ezequiel Mosquera (Xacobeo-Galicia) finished 13 seconds behind Gilbert, losing 12 to Nibali and Velits.
Fränk Schleck (Saxo Bank) punctured near the end and finished in a group 2’38” back, but because it happened inside the final 3km he only lost 15 seconds; he still lost his fourth place to former red jersey Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha).
Result stage 19
1. Philippe Gilbert (Bel) OmegaPharma-Lotto
2. Tyler Farrar (USA) Garmin-Transitions
3. Filippo Pozzato (Ita) Team Katusha @ 1s
4. Sébastien Hinault (Fra) AG2R-La Mondiale
5. Peter Velits (Svk) HTC-Columbia
6. Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Liquigas-Doimo
7. Nikolas Maes (Bel) Quick Step
8. Grega Bole (Slo) Lampre-Farnese Vini
9. Daniele Bennati (Ita) Liquigas-Doimo
10. Paul Voss (Ger) Team Milram @ 4s
Standings after stage 19
1. Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Liquigas-Doimo
2. Ezequiel Mosquera (Spa) Xacobeo-Galicia @ 50s
3. Peter Velits (Svk) HTC-Columbia @ 1’59”
4. Joaquim Rodriguez (Spa) Team Katusha @ 3’54”
5. Fränk Schleck (Lux) Team Saxo Bank @ 3’57”
6. Xavier Tondo (Spa) Cervélo TestTeam @ 4’02”
7. Nicolas Roche (Irl) AG2R-La Mondiale @ 4’10”
8. Tom Danielson (USA) Garmin-Transitions @ 4’12”
9. Carlos Sastre (Spa) Cervélo TestTeam @ 4’28”
10. Luis Leon Sanchez (Spa) Caisse d’Epargne @ 5’50”