South African takes victory reminiscent of teammate Michael Albasini in Catalunya after a rainy day in northern Spain
Daryl Impey (GreenEdge) won the second stage of the Vuelta a Pais in a way reminiscent of his Swiss teammate Michael Albasini’s victories in the Volta a Catalunya just two weeks before. The South African jumped clear of the peloton with little more than a kilometre of the 165.7km between Gueñes and Vitoria-Gasteiz to go, and managed to hold off the chase all the way to the line.
“I didn't come into today's stage expecting to win,” said Impey. “We were riding for Allan. When I found myself with the gap, I decided to take it. The boys worked so well early in the race and held it all together in the sprint. It's a massive victory -- definitely the biggest moment in my career.
“We went through that [final] corner really quickly, and I guess I just went a bit quicker than the rest,” he added. “Sprinting involves a lot of luck, so I was happy to take a chance with the gap. I was lucky to have enough left in the tank to hold it to the line. I kept thinking the field would blow past me in the final 100 meters, but they never did.”
To underline the Australian team’s dominance of the WorldTour stage races in Spain this season, Impey’s GreenEdge teammate Allan Davies was the first of the sprinters to cross the line, just a fraction of a second behind him, edging Davide Appollonio (Team Sky) in to third. “It was one of those situations where experience prevailed,” said Davis. “I didn't want to open up my sprint early even though I had good legs. With Daryl out front, I knew we had the option of going 1-2.”
The sprint came at the end of a long, wet day across the hills of the Basque region, which was dominated by a five man break from Thibaut Pinot (FDJ-BigMat), Jérôme Pineau (Omega Pharma-Quick Step), Mads Christensen (Saxo Bank), Gabriele Bosisio (Utensilnord-Named) and Julian Sanchez Pimiemta (Caja Rural), which escaped after just seven kilometres.
The quintet were allowed, by the Movistar team of stage one winner and race leader Jose Joaquin Rojas, to build a lead of up to seven minutes in the middle part of the stage, before being steadily reeled back by a combination of teams. There was an attempted counter attack from Dominik Nerz (Liquigas-Cannondale) towards the top of the final climb with just over ten kilometres to go; he was pulled back by the Astana team, which led into the descent down to the finish.
GreenEdge finally took control from the Kazakh team with just two kilometres to go, whereupon Impey found himself clear; realising he was off the front, the South African continued his attack and managed to hold on for the win.
With no time bonuses on the line, fourth place for Rojas was enough to see the Movistar sprinter hold on to his yellow jersey.
A typical Pais Vasco day of pouring rain awaits
The stage began almost immediately with the 3rd category Alto de San Cosme, whose summit came after just 4km. After just seven kilometres, on the descent that followed the climb, Pinot, Pineau and Christensen escaped. Bosisio and Sanchez Pimiemta gave chase and managed to make contact at the 32km point; by which time their lead over the peloton was up to 6’25”.
Pinot and Pineau were the best placed overall, both on the same time as Rojas, having finished in the main peloton the day before. Movistar was leading the chase, but making very little effort to pull back the break, and as Pinot led them over the top of the 2nd category Alto de La Barrerilla, after 42km, the five riders’ advantage was up to 6’50”.
The gap stayed largely constant for the next 50km and, as Pinot was first once more over the top of the 3rd category Alto de Zaldiaran after 94.3km, it had stretched a little to more than seven minutes. This was to be the maximum advantage however, as Euskaltel-Euskadi, GreenEdge and Rabobank began to lend a hand and the it began to fall steadily.
Over the top of the 3rd category Alto de Vitoria with 55km to go - with Piont taking more points - the lead had been cut to 5’18”. Garmin-Barracuda and RadioShack-Nissan also sent me forward, which saw it fall even quicker.
The break comes back and Astana takes control
On the way up to the 3rd category Alto de San Martin, with its summit at just 26.2km to go, the peloton was gaining fast, under the impetus of so many teams. On the way up the climb the gap fell below two minutes and, since the road was so narrow, the leaders’ team cars were pulled out at a convenient wide spot. As Pinot accelerated to take the points over the top it was just 1’22”.
All that remained was a descent and the climb of the Alto de Zaldiaran for the second time, the top of which came at just 9.3km to go, followed by a descent to the finish in Vitoria-Gasteiz.
The quintet’s days were numbered however, and its lead kept on dropping as they traversed the wide, straight roads on the way to the foot of the climb. With 19km to go the gap fell below a minute and, shortly afterwards Sanchez Pimiemta attacked at the Meta Volante, taking Pinot with him.
The peloton passed under the banner 54 seconds later, and the three other breakaways were soon back up to the front two. As the final climb began the gap was down to 30 seconds and, 4km from the top, the five riders were finally caught.
GreenEdge was leading the peloton but, with 2.5km still to climb Aleksandr Dyachenko (Astana) jumped away; the Kazakh was joined by Wesley Sulzberger (GreenEdge), Anthony Roux (FDJ-BigMat) Dominik Nerz (Liquigas-Cannondale), and Eduard Vorganov (Katusha), as Lampre-ISD led the chase behind them.
A kilometre from the top, Nerz attacked as the others were pulled back. Astana led the chase up the the German rider though, and he was back in the fold before he could reach the summit.
The Kazakh team kept the pace high over the top of the climb and into the final descent. Behind the turquoise and yellow team, Lampre-ISD was present in force, with Damiano Cunego’s flouro-yellow bike clearly visible; with 4km to go Australian champion Simon Gerrans (GreenEdge) tried to take over the lead, but was soon forced to yield to the determined presence of Astana.
As the roads flattened inside the final two kilometres, the GreenEdge team managed to assert itself however, and under the final kilometre banner Impey attacked. Despite the speeding peloton behind him, the South African managed to hold on to take the victory, with teammate Davis sitting up to celebrate just a few feet behind him in second place.
“Straight after the line, I realized Allan had won from the bunch,” said Impey. “I still had my hands up in the air when he passed me, and I knew straight away. It was a super team effort from GreenEdge today. It doesn't get much better than this.”