Today's stage of the Vuelta ended in Avila,a very nice city.The stage wasn't easy,since the riders had to face about 30 kms uphill.
On the slopes of the first climb of the day,16 riders formed a breakaway."Los escapados" were Jesus Hernandez (Astana),Philip Deignan (Cervélo TestTeam),Bingen Fernandez (Cofidis),Rein Taaramäe (Cofidis),David Moncoutié (Cofidis),Tadej Valjiavec (AG2R La Mondiale),Rémy Di Gregorio (Française des Jeux),Mikael Cherel (Française des Jeux),Igor Anton (Euskaltel-Euskadi),Manuel Vasquez (Contentpolis-Ampo),Roman Kreuziger (Liquigas),David Herrero (Xacobeo Galicia),Del Nero Montes (Fuji-Servetto) and,last but not least,Sexy Bankers Jakob Fuglsang and Matti Breschel (allez guys!).
On the last climb of the stage Gilbert attacked and soon gained some seconds on the adversaires. Matti Breschel unfortunately got dropped,while Jakob,Kreuziger,Deignan,Herrero and Vasquez were the only breakaway riders able to catch Gilbert.As soon as they passed him,the Belgian slowed down a lot and finally crossed the finish line 3 minutes and a half behind the stage winner.
On the final descent towards Avila,Kreuziger and Deignan accelerated and left their breakaway companions behind.Jakob and Herrero started to chase them and the stage got even more exciting.
Unfortunately for Saxo Bank supporters,Kreuziger and Deignan managed to keep about 20 seconds of advantadge on Jakob (that during the last kms of the stage rode completely alone) and so the victory was decided in a 2 men sprint.Kreuziger isn't very fast and so Deignan won in an apparent easy way.
I must say I felt a bit sorry for Kreuziger (and I've started to wonder who's the fastest rider between he and Frank),but Deignan fully deserved his victory,the second one of his career.
A great Jakob Fuglsang arrived rd,16 seconds behind the winner,while Matti Breschel came in 16th,7 minutes after Deignan (who now is also 9th in the GC).
Talking about the GC ,the biggest change was caused by Tom Danielson's retire."I have a bad infection in my lungs",he said after retiring from the race."I've been fighting illness for the last six days and I felt like I was in a good enough condition to fight it.I was in really good form,but I had no choice today.I couldn't race.I'm obviously really upset.I thought I had a chance of winning or finishing on the podium.I'll go to hospital tonight and get checked out.I think I might have broken a rib in my crash yesterday".Of course it's always sad to hear about an ill/injured rider and so I hope Danielson will soon feel better.
Between the people who didn't start/got retired today there were also Iglinsky, Hesjedal, Grabsch,Christian Meier,Julien Loubet,Ciolek and Leukemans.
On the slopes of the first climb of the day,16 riders formed a breakaway."Los escapados" were Jesus Hernandez (Astana),Philip Deignan (Cervélo TestTeam),Bingen Fernandez (Cofidis),Rein Taaramäe (Cofidis),David Moncoutié (Cofidis),Tadej Valjiavec (AG2R La Mondiale),Rémy Di Gregorio (Française des Jeux),Mikael Cherel (Française des Jeux),Igor Anton (Euskaltel-Euskadi),Manuel Vasquez (Contentpolis-Ampo),Roman Kreuziger (Liquigas),David Herrero (Xacobeo Galicia),Del Nero Montes (Fuji-Servetto) and,last but not least,Sexy Bankers Jakob Fuglsang and Matti Breschel (allez guys!).
On the last climb of the stage Gilbert attacked and soon gained some seconds on the adversaires. Matti Breschel unfortunately got dropped,while Jakob,Kreuziger,Deignan,Herrero and Vasquez were the only breakaway riders able to catch Gilbert.As soon as they passed him,the Belgian slowed down a lot and finally crossed the finish line 3 minutes and a half behind the stage winner.
On the final descent towards Avila,Kreuziger and Deignan accelerated and left their breakaway companions behind.Jakob and Herrero started to chase them and the stage got even more exciting.
Unfortunately for Saxo Bank supporters,Kreuziger and Deignan managed to keep about 20 seconds of advantadge on Jakob (that during the last kms of the stage rode completely alone) and so the victory was decided in a 2 men sprint.Kreuziger isn't very fast and so Deignan won in an apparent easy way.
I must say I felt a bit sorry for Kreuziger (and I've started to wonder who's the fastest rider between he and Frank),but Deignan fully deserved his victory,the second one of his career.
A great Jakob Fuglsang arrived rd,16 seconds behind the winner,while Matti Breschel came in 16th,7 minutes after Deignan (who now is also 9th in the GC).Talking about the GC ,the biggest change was caused by Tom Danielson's retire."I have a bad infection in my lungs",he said after retiring from the race."I've been fighting illness for the last six days and I felt like I was in a good enough condition to fight it.I was in really good form,but I had no choice today.I couldn't race.I'm obviously really upset.I thought I had a chance of winning or finishing on the podium.I'll go to hospital tonight and get checked out.I think I might have broken a rib in my crash yesterday".Of course it's always sad to hear about an ill/injured rider and so I hope Danielson will soon feel better.
Between the people who didn't start/got retired today there were also Iglinsky, Hesjedal, Grabsch,Christian Meier,Julien Loubet,Ciolek and Leukemans.
Tomorrow there's the last mountain stage of this year Vuelta and I think there will be lots of attacks between the GC riders (or at least I hope so,since it would be nice to see some good attacks on tomorrow's climbs).
(Pic by Cyclingnews)
Nessun commento:
Posta un commento