"Purito" outkicks his rivals on the steep Peña Cabarga but an Italian takes the lead
Joachim Rodriguez (Katusha) won the fourteenth stage of the Vuelta a España between Burgos and Peña Cabarga after attacking in the final kilometre of the steep climb to the finish. Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Doimo) was second, 20 seconds behind, with Ezequiel Mosquera (Xacobeo-Galicia) in third at 22 seconds.
After two flat stages across the top of Spain, the race returned to the mountains as it headed into Cantabria. The three categorised climbs on the way to the finish would not be enough to trouble to many riders but the steep 6km rise to the finish, averaging more than 9% but with ramps of up to 18% were almost certain to force a selection.
“I didn’t make the same mistake as in Andorra,” said Rodriguez after the stage. “Then I waited too long to take my chance and make a difference but this time I raced with my head. I was probably overconfident in Andorra, today I changed my tactics and it paid off.
“Tomorrow up to the Lagos de Covadonga I’ll have to be careful, I might have a bad day,” he continued. “I’ll watch Nibali but not only him; several riders can still win the Vuelta.
“It’s a pity that the Vuelta ended like this for Igor Antón,” he said of Euskaltel-Euskadi rider who was leading the race but abandoned after a crash, “he and his team were strong. I didn’t see the crash I only heard the noise. Everyone wanted to get a good position before the climb; it was very fast; I didn’t know the leader was down.”
As in the previous transitional stages, the early kilometres were dominated by unsuccessful attempts to escape the peloton. Eventually, after 35km an attack from previous race leader Philippe Gilbert (OmegaPharma-Lotto) pulled a group of ten clear.
Present in the group were Luis Leon Sanchez (Caisse d’Epargne) and Christian Vande Velde (Garmin-Transitions), which caused the peloton to pull them back. Yesterday’s breakaway hero Niki Terpstra (Milram) was also present in the break, and he was determined to stay away again today. As the rest of the break was absorbed the Dutch champion resisted and broke away alone.
The peloton was happy to let the lone Dutchman go alone and at the 42km point he was more than 2 minutes ahead. 5km later, with Terpstra’s lead up to 3’40”, the Garmin-Transitions duo of David Millar and Dave Zabriskie jumped from the front of the peloton and set off in pursuit.
At the 64km point, Terpstra sat up to wait for Millar and Zabriskie and as the three riders joined together they led the peloton by 5 minutes.
The trio continued to build its advantage, and as Millar led over the top of the Alto de Bocos, after 78km, it had reached 10’44”, and was still rising. As they passed through the intermediate sprint at Espinosa de los Monteros after 90km, it had risen to 12’12”.
On the lower slopes of the 2nd category Portillo de Lunada, after 104km, the lead reached 12’55”, but as the Cervélo TestTeam took the front of the peloton it began to fall; by the time the three riders had reached the summit it had already fallen to 9’25”.
Caisse d’Epargne took over from Cervélo after the Lunada and the threesome’s advantage fell steadily; at the 125km point it had reduced to 7’10”. At the top of the Alto del Caracol after 126km it had gone down to 6’18”, largely de to the peloton chasing the attacks of David Arroyo and Luis Leon Sanchez (Caisse d’Epargne), and Alexandr Kolobnev (Katusha). Arroyo was quickly caught but Sanchez and Kolobnev managed to hold on a few seconds ahead of the peloton; they dangled tantalisingly, just 40 seconds ahead for several kilometres before they were finally caught by the Euskaltel-Euskadi led bunch at the 148km point.
At 150km the Katusha team took over on the front of the peloton with the breakaway trio at 5 minutes. 8km later, with just 20km to go, Zabriskie sat up and left Millar and Terpstra to go on without him; the gap was now down to just 4 minutes.
Katusha continued to lead the peloton as Millar and Terpstra approached the foot of the Peña Cabarga. With 10km to go, and 4km from the climb’s start, the pair still held 2’29”, but the Russian team continued to reduce the gap.
Just before the climb began a crash near the front of the peloton took down race leader Igor Antón (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Marzio Bruseghin (Caisse d’Epargne) and a few others. The Basque in the red jersey appeared to have injured his shoulder or collarbone and was forced to withdraw from the race, along with teammate Egoi Martinez; Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Doimo) was now the virtual race leader.
As the climb steepened Nibali’s teammate Roman Kreuziger lifted the pace and they began to reel in Millar and Terpstra, who were both visibly tired from their time in the lead. With their advantage just a handful of seconds Millar sat up to wait for Garmin-Transitions teammate Tom Danielson but Terpstra persisted.
Just as the group of favourites was about to catch Terpstra with 2km to go, David Garcia (Xacobeo-Galicia) attacked and flew past the Dutch champion. He managed to get a small lead until Nibali counterattacked, followed by a further move from Rodriguez.
With 1km to go Rodriguez and Nibali were together, but a few hundred metres further the Spaniard attacked again and the Italian was unable to follow. With Antón out of the race the two riders were battling for the race lead as well as the stage victory.
At the start of the day, Rodriguez was 32 seconds behind Nibali, and with the time bonus on the line he needed to finish 24 seconds clear to get the red jersey. The Katusha rider continued alone through a sea of Spanish fans to take the stage victory; Nibali managed to hold on for second, 20 seconds back, holding on to the race lead by just 4 seconds.
Ezequiel Mosquera (Xacobeo-Galicia) crossed the line 2 seconds behind the Italian to take third on the stage and move into third overall.
Result stage 14
1. Joaquim Rodriguez (Spa) Team Katusha
2. Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Liquigas-Doimo @ 20s
3. Ezequiel Mosquera (Spa) Xacobeo-Galicia @ 22s
4. David Moncoutié (Fra) Cofidis @ 33s
5. Nicolas Roche (Irl) AG2R-La Mondiale @ 34s
6. Fränk Schleck (Lux) Team Saxo Bank @ 35s
7. Xavier Tondo (Spa) Cervélo TestTeam @ 39s
8. David Garcia (Spa) Xacobeo-Galicia @ 43s
9. Peter Velits (Svk) HTC-Columbia @ 45s
10. Tom Danielson (USA) Garmin-Transitions @ 1’29”
Standings after stage 14
1. Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Liquigas-Doimo
2. Joaquim Rodriguez (Spa) Team Katusha @ 4s
3. Ezequiel Mosquera (Spa) Xacobeo-Galicia @ 50s
4. Xavier Tondo (Spa) Cervélo TestTeam
5. Nicolas Roche (Irl) AG2R-La Mondiale @ 2’11”
6. Fränk Schleck (Lux) Team Saxo Bank @ 2’12”
7. Peter Velits (Svk) HTC-Columbia @ 2’29”
8. Tom Danielson (USA) Garmin-Transitions @ 3’29”
9. Ruben Plaza (Spa) Caisse d’Epargne @ 3’41”
10. Carlos Sastre (Spa) Cervélo TestTeam @ 3’52”