British champion sees lead cut to four seconds as Vincenzo Nibali goes on the attack
Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky) saw his Vuelta a España lead cut to just four seconds at the end of stage thirteen, as Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Cannondale) stole the bonus at the first intermediate sprint of the day. The defending champion also went on the attack, putting his famous descending skills to use, on the way down the 1st category Puerto de Ancares, but the British champion calmly used his team to pull back the small group that had formed.
“I'm pretty relaxed about how things went today and it was another good performance from the team,” said Wiggins after the stage.
“Yes, Nibali made up six seconds by attacking on that first descent and winning the sprint, but I didn't see the point in wasting energy unnecessarily and taking big risks just to try and defend a few seconds.”
Nibali had lost four seconds to Fredrik Kessiakoff (Astana) and Bauke Mollema (Rabobank) as he was caught behind a small split in the peloton the day before. Although he made one second up on Wiggins, who lost five to the others, the Italian lost his third place overall to Kessiakoff.
With the six-second bonus for the intermediate sprint, Nibali moves up to second place, overtaking Wiggins’ teammate Chris Froome, and is now poised to attack the jersey as the race heads into the two mountaintop finishes of the weekend.
Wiggins is in no mood to relinquish his lead though, and is as determined as ever to become the first British rider to win one of the sport’s three Grand Tours.
“Fair credit to him for having a go,” said Wiggins, “but I don't think the race will have been won or lost today; the time gains or losses in the mountains days to come are going play a much bigger role in how this race is decided.
“I'm really happy to still be in the jersey though, and it's a huge honour to be able to pull it on each morning and as I've said before, we'll be doing all we can to defend it to Madrid.”
While Wiggins puts up a relaxed front, his Sky team had another hard day controlling the front of the peloton. Only in the closing kilometres, when riders in the break were threatening the top ten overall, did other teams come forward to minimise its gains.
“It was one of the toughest days for everyone,” said Team Sky’s sports director Steven de Jongh. “It was a lot of work but the guys defended the jersey well. Nibali took back a few seconds but it was a good day all in all.
“With the two category-three climbs at the start there were a lot of guys who wanted to go away in the breakaway. They might not have been interested in the stage win but with the bonuses they were all fighting to be in there. Nibali was up there and at one point Brad was in there too. It was tough racing.”
With his team setting a steady tempo, allowing the break to stay ahead as it contained no immediate threat, Wiggins himself was only called upon to work himself when Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) tried to jump away on the Puerto de Ancares.
“It was good to see the guys on the front up the climbs,” said de Jongh. “It was a really impressive performance from the team. On the way back down the Ancares it was not that much of an issue. A couple of guys got away on the descent but I think the guys handled it well.”
Saturday’s stage finishes at the top of the La Farrapona. Lagos de Somiedo, but Wiggins is likely to come under the biggest pressure when the race heads to the infamous Alto de L'Angliru.
“The weekend is going to be really important; decisive actually,” de Jongh concluded. “The mountaintop finishes on Saturday on Sunday should blow the race open”