Dan Martin (Cannondale-Garmin) put in a solid performance on today’s first big mountainous stage of the Vuelta, as he attacked the main group of favourites on the final climb, but was unable to gain any time on the other GC contenders. His cousin, Nicolas Roche, also rode very well to finish in the small group of big name favourites.
The stage saw the riders race from Jódar to La Alpujarra over a distance of 191 kilometres. It was the first really big mountainous stage of the race whereby the riders faced the first category climb to the finish of Alto de Capileira. It was an 18-kilometre long climb which reached 14% inside the final two kilometres.
Going into the stage, Martin was 33″ behind race leader Johan Esteban Chaves (Orica-GreenEdge) in third place, with Roche a further three seconds back.
Prior to the stage, Roche had discussed what his role for Team Sky would be. He said, “It’s a very different kind of effort. I have been doing very well on three to four kilometers climbs and this is four times as long. I’m well placed overall and I always want to do well in the Vuelta but I must not forget my main job which is to help Chris win this Vuelta. In the mountain, Chris, myself, Mikel and Sergio Henao are the riders expected to do well for the team.”
A break of five riders got clear after 12 kilometres. Carlos Quintero (Colombia), Amets Txurruka (Caja Rural), Ilia Koshevoy (Lampre-Merida), Bert Jan Lindeman (LottoNL-Jumbo) and Jérôme Cousin (Europcar) were the five riders who made up the break.
They worked well together and their gap reached a maximum of 13 minutes with 80 kilometres remaining. Behind the bunch was led by Orica-GreenEdge, with Astana, Movistar and Sky also contributing to the work. With 40 kilometres remaining, the gap had been reduced to less than ten minutes.
On the final climb, Cousin attacked from the break with 6.5 kilometres left, but was brought back with Koshevoy next to go. Behind, more and more riders were getting shelled from the peloton. Cousin made it back to Koshevoy with 3 kilometres left followed by Lindeman.
Martin was the first to attack the small bunch of GC contenders inside the final two kilometres, whilst Froome was dropped. Martin was brought back and Aru was next to attack, whilst the three leaders started playing around inside the final kilometre.
Lindeman managed to drop Koshevoy to take the stage win whilst Aru gained a handful of seconds on the other GC contenders. Roche and Martin finished in 10th and 11th places respectively, 36″ down on the stage winner and in the same time as most of the favourites.
The big news was that both Chris Froome and Tejay van Garderen (BMC Racing) both lost time to the favourites. Chaves holds on to the red jersey, ahead of Dumoulin, Martin and Roche ahead of tomorrow’s eighth stage from Puebla de Don Fadrique to Murcia.
