Crashes put Dutch team's captains out of the running but stage wins are still possible
Rabobank’s Denis Menchov was probably the biggest loser among the overall contenders after yesterday’s first mountain stage to Xorret del Catí. The Russian, who won the race in 2005 and 2007, finished 3’44” behind stage winner David Moncutié (Cofidis) and is now 3’16” behind Igor Antón (Euskaltel-Euskadi) in 20th place.
“I got caught in the big crash and my right knee was painful all the way”, said Menchov. “With this pain, I couldn’t push on the pedals in the final hill. For the moment, it’s a bad day. We’ll see tomorrow if the consequences of the crash make it even worse or not.”
For the Dutch team though, ambitions of getting any Rabobank rider into the top-three at the end of the three-week race. “We’ve put a podium place in Madrid out of our minds,” said team director Adri van Houwelingen.
"The wound to the elbow seems superficial,” van Houwelingen explained, “but in the race against other riders Denis complained about pain and discomfort in his knee later on. This has also been treated, but with a sore knee and elbow it was such a terribly steep final climb."
Menchov’s crash is not the first bit of bad luck for the orange team; Laurens Ten Dam suffered a crash on stage 6 to Murcia, losing 2 minutes.
"First Laurens lost the chance for a good ranking from a crash and now it’s Denis,” said van Houwelingen. “It’s a bitter blow, but it's happened. These are just the facts, and we must not just sit back for [the next] fourteen days, but just take a look at what is still possible here."
Menchov and Ten Dam’s misfortunes have made the Rabobank team reconsider its strategy for the rest of the race.
"In preparation for this Vuelta, we thought that we should be playing for the [overall] classification,” he explained. “We also indicated that we’d initially got for stage wins and after a week to see how the chances were in the standings; it seemed to be mainly based on the appearance of Denis here. Now it’s gone wrong, but I am still taking into account that Denis would have to pay a price for his efforts in the Tour [de France], so this is not too bad."
One thing that gives van Houwelingen optimism is the fact that Ten Dam’s lost time on yesterday’s stage was largely due to his sitting up to help Menchov.
“Laurens cared more about his leader than his own chances at that moment,” he said. “This was some exemplary teamwork and something that we agreed upon.
“The overall classification is over,” van Houwelingen admitted. “That’s one thing that’s perfectly clear now; and unfortunately we don’t have all nine riders fit, that’s something that must be considered. You can’t expect all nine riders to go on the attack on Sunday, the team is currently incapable; but there are still some good riders in there, including Laurens.
“We have to see how well he has handled the crash; perhaps we can expect something. It’s now a question to see what’s possible from day to day.”