Winner Anacona (Lampre-Merida) took his first professional victory on the biggest scene of them all when he emerged as the strongest from a 31-rider breakaway on today’s big mountain stage of the Vuelta a Espana. Further down the mountain, Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo), Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) and Nairo Quintana (Movistar) managed to distance Chris Froome (Sky) who lost 23 seconds while Quintana took the leader’s jersey off the shoulders of his teammate Alejandro Valverde.

 

A few days before the start of the Vuelta a Espana, Lampre-Merida saw their big plans for the race getting ruined when Chris Horner was taken out of the race due to high cortisol levels. Today the team bounced back from the disappointment when an excellent Winner Anacona won the big mountain stage that finished on the Aramon Valdelinares climb.

 

Having recently finished third in the Tour of Utah, Anacona had shown good form going into the race and he nearly made the big coup as he was in the virtual lead all day and just missed out on the red jersey by 9 seconds. However, that didn’t take anything away from an impressive ride though that was crowned by an excellent solo performance on the final climb.

 

Anacona was part of a big 31-rider breakaway that escaped after a very fast start to the race and he clearly showed that he was the strongest rider in that group. Knowing that he could take the lead, he did his fair share of the work and as soon as they hit the climbs in the finale, he launched repeated attacks.

 

He was brought back a few times before he finally opened a gap with Javier Moreno (Movistar) and Bob Jungels (Trek) on the penultimate climb. On the final ascent, Jungels was the first to get dropped and when Anacona accelerated with 6km to go, Moreno also had to surrender.

 

From there, Anacona did his best to take both the stage win and the leader’s jersey but things had become complicated by the fact that Sky had now taken over the pace-setting. The British team was riding hard on the front and most were expecting Chris Froome to launch a lethal attack on the steep section inside the final 3km.

 

Instead, it was Daniel Martin (Garmin-Sharp) who made the first move and this indicated that Froome was vulnerable. The Brit drifted to the rear end of the group as Katusha started to chase hard, bringing the Irishman back.

 

Alberto Contador realized that his big rival was suffering and he was quick to exploit the situation. The Spaniard launched a fierce attack and quickly gained a big advantage.

 

Joaquim Rodriguez and Nairo Quintana set off in pursuit and hard work by Rodriguez made them close the gap to Contador just before the line. Froome finished with Valverde, Rigoberto Uran, Martin, Alejandro Valverde and Fabio Aru 23 seconds later.

 

Having gained time on Valverde, Quintana took the leader’s jersey and he now goes into the first rest day with a 3-second advantage over Contador. However, he faces a very difficult defense on Tuesday in the race’s long 36.7km time trial whose mostly flat course doesn’t do the tiny Colombian many favours.

 

A big mountain stage

After yesterday’s dramatic stage, it was back into the mountains on the final day before the rest day. The riders travelled over 185km from Carboneras de Guadazon to Aramon Valdelinares and after a completely flat first half, the second part was a difficult one. An early category 3 climb preceded an easy section that led to the bottom of a category 2 climbs whose top came just 5.5km from the bottom of the 8km category 1 climb to the finish.

 

All riders who finished yesterday’s stage took off under a cloudy sky and for the first time in this year’s race, rain was expected to have an impact on the race. As expected, the race was off to a very fast start with lots of attack and the riders covered the first 9km at an average speed of almost 60kph.

 

Lots of attacks

A big 27-rider group managed to get clear and KOM leader Lluis Mas (Caja Rural) was one of the riders who were up the road. The attacking continued and at the 18km mark, only Przeyslaw Niemiec (Lampre-Merida), Amets Txurruka (Caja Rural), Luis Angel Mate (Cofidis), Jerome Cousin (Europcar), Johan Le Bon (FDJ) and Daniel Teklehaimanot (FDJ) were left.

 

Astana, BMC and Garmin-Sharp chased hard and at the 21km mark, they had brought things back together. That was the chance for new riders to attack and at the 30km mark, a big 27-rider group had taken off.

 

A big group takes off

16 riders set off in pursuit of Winner Anacona, Damiano Cunego (both Lampre), Rinaldo Nocentini (Ag2r), Alexey Lutsenko (Astana), Paul Martens (Belkin), Dominik Nerz and Danilo Wyss (both BMC), Peio Bilbao (Caja Rural), Jerome Coppel, Romain Zingle (both Cofidis), Natnael Berhane, Yannick Martinez ( both Europcar), Ryder Hesjedal, Johan Vansummeren (both Garmin), Pirmin Lang (IAM), Eduard Vorganov (Katusha), Adam Hansen (Lotto), Javier Moreno (Movistar), Daniel Teklehaimanot, Jay Thomson (both MTN), Tom Boonen, Carlos Verona (both OPQS), Sam Bewley (Orica-GreenEDGE), Dario Cataldo (Sky), Julian Arredondo, Fabio Felline and Bob Jungels (all Trek). They were brought back and instead Maximu Bouet (Ag2r), Lluis Mas (Caja Rural), Jerome Cousin (Europcar) and Nikias Arndt (Giant-Shimano) tried to bridge the gap.

 

The peloton finally slowed down, with Movistar riding on the front and after 40km of racing, they were 2.10 behind the big front group. At this point, the four chasers were 45 seconds behind but they managed to make the junction.

 

Hofland abandons

Moreno Hofland (Belkin) became the next rider to abandon the race while the gap continued to grow and after 80km of racing, the escapees had extended their advantage to 6.20. In the feed zone, the gap has reached 7 minutes.

 

Martinez beat Zingle and Lutsenko in the first intermediate sprint before they hit the bottom of the first climb. Trek were doing a lot of the work and at the 111km mark, they had extended the advantage to 8.15.

 

Movistar lead the chase

That was as much as Movistar would allow the break to get and now they started to chase a bit hard. They brought the gap down to less than 8 minutes before the break regained some momentum. 2km from the top, the gap was back up to 8.30.

 

Cousin beat Mas and Cataldo in the KOM sprint and now the gap had come down to 7.25. In the flat section, Adriano Malori, Imanol Erviti and later also Andrey Amador kept the gap stable at around 7 minutes.

 

Boonen attacks

In the front group, Tom Boonen, Johan Vansummeren, Romain Zingle and Anacona were among the most active riders. They did a lot of work while Arndt beat Thomson and Martinez in the final intermediate sprint.

 

With 34km to go, Boonen launched an attack and he was joined by Felline and Anacona. However, Hesjedal brought it back together before leaving it to Vansummeren to take a massive turn on the front.

 

Bewley makes a move

As they approached the penultimate climb, Bewley attacked and he started the ascent with an advantage of a few seconds. In the peloton, Luke Rowe and Christian Knees were now riding hard for Sky while Fabio Aru fought his way back from a puncture.

 

Hansen and Wyss bridged the gap to Bewley and later Felline also made the junction. It all came back together before Felline and Anacona got a gap.

 

Anacona launches several attacks

Cataldo brought the splintering chase group back to the front but Anacona refused to give up. He launched another move and was joined by Jungels and Cousin.

 

They were again caught before Anacona launched his next move. This time only Jungels and Moreno could match his pace and now they were riding away from their chasers.

 

Sky set the pace

The gap was now 6.00 as first Kanstantsin Siutsou and later Vasil Kiryienka set a fast pace that made the peloton explode to pieces. At the top of the climb, Moreno led Anacona across the line and they were not more than 40 seconds ahead of Cunego, Nocentini, Lutsenko, Nerz, Bilbao, Coppel, Cousin, Martinez, Hesjedal, Arndt, Vorganov, Hansen, Teklehaimanot, Verona, Cataldo, Felline.

 

As soon as the peloton started the descent, Tony Martin and Rigoberto Uran attacked and they bridged the gap to Boonen who led them onto the climb with a small advantage. However, Peter Kennaugh managed to bring them back on the lower slopes and the British champion now set a brutal pace on the front.

 

Cataldo makes the peloton explode

In the front group, Jungels had fallen off the pace and with 6km to go, Anacona made an attack. Moreno tried to respond but he Spaniard started to lose ground.

 

Aru, Landa, Kelderman, Gesink, Sanchez, Arroyo, Caruso, Navarro, Sicard, Martin, Barguil, Rodriguez, Moreno, Caruso, Monfort, Valverde, Quintana, Pardilla, Uran, Brambilla, Serry, Chaves, Froome, Kennaugh, Nieve, Deignan, Zaugg, Contador were now the only riders left in the peloton and they picked up Cataldo who started to ride hard on the front. Several riders fell off the pace while Anacona managed to maintain an advantage of 3.45 for several kilometres.

 

Martin attacks

As soon as they hit the steep section with 3km to go, Martin attacked. Caruso led the chase that caused the peloton to splinter to pieces and saw Froome drift to the rear end.

 

Contador realized that he had a great chance to make a difference and when Moreno took over on the front of the peloton that was down to Moreno, Rodriguez, Quintana, Uran, Contador, Valverde, Aru, Nieve, Sanchez, Froome, Navarro, he took off.

 

Rodriguez makes his move

Moreno led the chase for a little while before Rodriguez attacked. Quintana joined him and they bridged the gap to Vorganov who did a lot of work for his captain.

 

With a fierce acceleration inside the final 500m, Rodriguez and Quintana managed to bridge the gap to Contador while Froome, Valverde, Aru, Martin and Uran finished 23 seconds later.