After winning yesterday’s stage to San Lorenzo de El Escorial and taking the red jersey of race leadership, Spanish rider Joaquim Rodríguez wants to seize today’s opportunity to take more time. He’s a known weak time trialist, losing all hope of winning the race last year when he collapsed on the stage to Peñafiel, and wants to start tomorrow’s 47 kilometre test with as big a lead as possible.
Today’s stage heads to the summit finish of La Covatilla and with it’s step-like profile, the gradient steepening then stuttering in places, it could suit a rider with Rodriguez’ explosive characteristics.
“A breakaway will arrive for sure,” he said at the start, predicting that a move would get clear early on. After that, he’ll try to move into position to ride aggressively in the finale. “It’s another day for us to control the race, but my team-mates need to recover a bit. However, if we can, the team will take me in a position to go for the win again because I’m interested in the time bonus.
“I’d like this climb to be a bit harder and shorter. Differences between us will depend on the wind. The wind can make the race hard.”
The rider who finished second to him yesterday, Michele Scarponi (Lampre-ISD) is motivated to try to both improve on that placing and also on his fifth position overall. However he’s wary of the race leader, who he knows is the man to beat on today’s terrain.
“Many riders want to do well here today. In my opinion, it’s a stage to make differences,” he said, minutes before starting the race. “I’d like to win but I believe that ‘Purito’ [Rodriguez] has the capacity to do it again. He needs to gain time bonus because maybe he won’t do that well in the time trial.”
As things stood this morning, Scarponi was sitting 51 seconds behind Rodriguez. The latter’s team-mate Dani Moreno is closest, 32 seconds back, with Jakob Fuglsang (Leopard Trek) and last year’s race winner Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Cannondale) third and fourth.
Bauke Mollema (Rabobank), who finished third yesterday, is just under a minute back in eighth overall. He’s riding above expectations and is encouraged to dig deep again today.
“I was absolutely pleased with my performance,” he indicated. “To be able to even take some time bonus (eight seconds) in such a steep climb was great. It’s a different type of stage today but I hope to make the top five.”
Also likely to aim high is Irish rider Daniel Martin (Garmin-Cervélo). He was third on the stage to Sierra Nevada and ninth yesterday, two places behind his compatriot and first cousin Nicolas Roche (Ag2r La Mondiale). When Martin is on a good day, he’s a very strong climber and will be keen to move up the general classification.