Team Astana leader Alexandre Vinokourov raced to a characteristic solo win on today’s third stage of the Vuelta al Pais Vasco, showing that his form is ramping up prior to the defence of his Liège-Bastogne-Liège title.
The 37 year old Kazakhstan rider attacked on the final descent, shaking off the other riders with five kilometres to go. He opened a 12 second lead and while the chasers came back on him slightly between there and the line, he held on to take a clear victory.
Vinokourov reached the chequered flag eight seconds ahead of Oscar Freire and his Rabobank team-mate Paul Martens, with a total of 59 riders finishing in that group.
“It's a great victory for me, it's my first victory here at the Tour of the Basque Country and it's also my first win of the season,” he said. “It is the second victory of the year for the team [after Remy di Gregorio’s Paris-Nice success – ed.]. We all work a lot, so I'm glad we are rewarded.”
Overnight leader Andreas Klöden rolled over the line in 19th place. Joaquim Rodriguez had started the day level on time with the RadioShack rider and moved back into the lead due to his better stage placing of tenth.
"Today I looked for the placing in order to re-obtain the yellow jersey,” he said. “Tomorrow there will be the queen stage and being at the top of the general classification gives me more motivation.”
Klöden is a stronger time trialist and so Rodriguez knows that he has to press home his advantage while he can, opening a sufficient buffer to survive at the top in the 24 kilometre test.
"There will be a summit finish [tomorrow], so I need to take the most time that I can because the ITT that will finish this competition on Saturday does not suit me, and I predict I will lose something. So, it’s better to have the strongest possible lead.”
One rider who he appears not to have to worry about is Vinokourov. He’s now just ten seconds back in the general classification, but said that he considers the overall victory to be beyond him. “Here I am focussed day by day,” he admitted. “There is also tomorrow's stage that will be difficult. I don’t aim for a podium, it's very hard and there are strong competitors such as Andreas Klöden.”
Despite losing the jersey today, RadioShack directeur sportif Jose Azevedo said that he was satisfied with how the stage played out. “We controlled the race, the breakaways and the long breakaway with seven riders,” he stated. “In the end it was Rabobank (working for sprinter Oscar Freire) who took over our job. It is especially good to see that Levi feels better every day. Today he worked hard for our two leaders Andreas [Klöden] and Chris [Horner].”
Defending champion Horner was best placed of the team in eighth slot. He is fourth overall, just one second off yellow, and will seek to battle for the lead tomorrow.
Aggressive stage, attacking finale:
There were a stream of early attacks, with several groups trying to get clear on the undulating roads leading out of Villatuerta . They gained a gap, but each was brought back.
A longer lasting move happened when Paris-Nice winner Tony Martin (HTC Highroad) soloed clear and took the prime atop the category two Alto de Opakua, 42 kilometres after the start. The German was joined by six others: Egoi Martinez (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Jerome Pineau (Quick Step), Juan Manuel Garate (Rabobank), Amaël Moinard (BMC), Przemyslaw Niemiec (Lampre-ISD) and Francesco Bellotti (Liquigas-Cannondale).
The group showed limited cooperation and a frustrated Moinard clipped away. He was joined by Bellotti and Pineau, and together they pressed onwards. Moinard was first to the top of the category three Alto de Zarate (km. 100) and again beat Pineau and Belloti on the similarly-ranked Alto de Mendeika (km. 139).
However their time out front ended before the summit of the category two Alto de Altube (km 169), where Kevin Seeldraeyers (Quick Step), Tejay Van Garderen (HTC-Highroad) and Alexandr Kolobnev (Katusha) went clear and crossed the prime line in that order.
Levi Leipheimer led the RadioShack-led peloton over a few seconds later, with the team well aware that Kolobnev was too well placed to allow much leeway. The Russian and Seeldraeyers pushed on in a bid to stay clear, but the latter clipped Kolobnev’s wheel and ended up riding into the ditch. He fortunately didn’t come down, but any chance of staying clear was over.
Kolobnev persisted and was caught by a two riders. One was former world under 23 champion Fabio Duarte (Geox-TMC), who promptly pushed on ahead with approximately 7 kilometres left. However the bunch drew close and, going under the five kilometre to go banner, Vinokourov jumped hard, zoomed clear and overtook the Colombian.
He continued on alone, driving the pedals around and gaining time over the ineffective chase behind. He finally hit the line eight seconds clear, grabbing his first win of the season and answering some of the pressure the team sponsors were reportedly putting on the riders to perform better.
The victory brings satisfaction, of course, but so too reassurance. “I feel my condition improve day by day I feel better and better, the legs are there,” he said. “It gives me confidence before the Classics coming and to arrive in good shape for the Tour this year.”
The WorldTour race continues tomorrow with a 179 kilometre stage to Eibar (Arrate). The summit finish there will play a major part in the final outcome of the race.