CyclingQuotes.com Fantastic solo win for Kiryienka, Horner gains time on Nibali

Vasil Kiryienka saved a lacklustre Vuelta a Espana for Sky by producing a magnificent solo ride on the 18th stage that finished on the top of the 20% Peña Cabarga climb. Having made it into a 15-rider group, he left his companions behind and held off the entire Movistar team to take a beautiful solo win. Chris Horner (Radioshack) set a fierce pace in the group of favourites and despite his best efforts, Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) got too far into the red zone and ultimately cracked, losing 25 seconds to his American rival and so saving his red jersey by 3 seconds.

Sky is known as the best grand tour team in the world but until now they have had a lacklustre Vuelta a Espana. Their GC ambitions came to nothing and so the Brits changed started to target stage wins.

Edvald Boasson Hagen (twice) and Rigoberto Uran both got close when they finished 2nd but today everything finally fell into place for the British super team when Vasil Kirienka rode away from his 14 companions in a big breakaway. Behind Movistar were giving their all to reel in the string Belarusian who just kept extending his advantage by setting the kind of fierce pace that has made him known in the cycling world.

Kiriyenka managed his pace well on the brutally steep Peña Cabarga climb and despite a fierce battle among the favourites, he held off his chasers and took a fantastic solo win. Chris Anker Sørensen (Saxo-Tinkoff) and Adam Hansen (Lotto) also managed to stay in front to take the final two spots on the podium.

Behind the escapees, the favourites battled for the Vuelta win. Daniel Moreno launched a fierce Katusha offensive inside the final 2km and drew clear his teammate Joaquim Rodriguez. Briefly, the Katusha duo appeared to ride away from their rivals but Chris Horner and Vincenzo Nibali both managed to get back on.

Horner set his usual fierce pace that was too much for Moreno and Rodriguez. Nibali dug deep to keep up with his main rival but it all got too much for the race leader. Inside the final kilometre, he cracked and Horner rode away to cross the line as the first GC rider.

Nibali suffered and was overtaken by Rodriguez and Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) but managed to limit his losses to 25 seconds. Hence, he saved his race but he is now only 3 seconds ahead of Horner.

All is set to come down to a final showdown on the Angliru but first the riders have to negotiate tomorrow's tricky stage to the top of the Alto del Naranco climb. The final climb is not overly difficult and it could be another day for a successful breakaway.

A brutal climb

The 186,5km 17th stage was the first of the three consecutive summit finishes and expected to produce a big showdown between the race favourites. A hilly course ended with the brutally steep climb Peña Cabarga whose 20% gradients were expected to produce a shake-up of the GC.

As expected the race was off to a fast start with numerous attacks being launched during the first kilometres. A 7-rider group was the first to get clear but it was brought back at the 9 km mark. Moments later, an 18-rider group built up a gap but as Orica-GreenEDGE had missed the move, they closed it down at the 18km mark.

The break is formed

That was when Caleb Fairly (Garmin), Angel Vicioso (Katusha), Amets Txurruka (Caja Rural), Adam Hansen (Lotto), Mikael Cherel (Ag2r), Reinhardt Janse Van Rensburg (Argos), Vasil Kiryienka (Sky), Tiziano Dall'Antonia (Cannondale), Martin Kohler (BMC), Ben Gastauer (Ag2r), Chris Anker Sørensen (Saxo-Tinkoff), Grega Bole (Vacansoleil) and Matteo Bono (Lampre) got clear and they were later joined by Egoi Martinez (Euskaltel) and Simon Clarke (Orica-GreenEDGE) to form a big 15-rider group.

Movistar had missed the move and so they started to chase. They were joined by Cofidis who were eager to get Nicolas Edet into the move, the Frenchman wanting to extend the lead in the mountains competition. The two teams combined forces for some time but when the gap kept growing, Movistar gave up and a little later Cofidis also stopped chasing.

No hurry for Astana

Sørensen was best-placed on GC, more than 20 minutes behind Vincenzo Nibali, and so Astana just set a gentle pace which allowed the break to reach a massive 10 minutes. Finally, NetApp-Endura, Movistar and Katusha started to chase and gradually brought the gap down. Katusha had Vicioso in the break but had more confidence in Rodriguez for that kind of finish.

Txurruka made sure to crest the summit of the first three climbs in third position to pick up 9 points for the KOM competition. Meanwhile, Imanol Erviti, Jose Ivan Gutierrez, Sylwester Szmyd (Movistar) and Iker Camano (NetApp) worked hard in the peloton while Katusha had now stopped chasing.

Kiriyenka attacks

With 50km to go, the breakaway hit the bottom of the penultimate climb Alto del Caracol with a diminished 5-minute gap. Kiryienka sensed that something had to be done and so launched an attack that was quickly marked by Martinez but spelled the end for Bono, Gastauer, Bole, Fairly and Dall'Antonia.

Kirienka refused to give up and when he made his second acceleration, only Clarke could respond. Hansen dug deep to bridge across but when the Belarusian kept his fierce pace, his Australian companions both fell behind.

Szmyd loses the battle

Martinez, Cherel, Van Rensburg, Txurruka, Vicioso and Sørensen formed a chase group that caught Hansen and Clarke but they kept losing time to the lone Sky rider. In the peloton, Szmyd was now doing all the work while several riders dropped off.

Kiriyenka did an impressive job to ride away from both his chasers and Szmyd and when he crested the summit, he was 30 seconds ahead of the nearest group which now consisted of Sørensen, Martinez and Vicioso. The peloton was now a massive 6 minutes behind.

Kiriyenka keeps extending his lead

On the descent, Szmyd got assistance from Benat Intxausti, Eros Capecchi and Javier Moreno but the combined efforts of those 4 riders was not enough to reel in Kiriyenka who extended his lead to more than 6.30. Txurruka, Kohler and Van Rensburg and later also Hansen and Clarke joined up with the chase group which completely lost its cohesion.

Movistar finally started to get a bit closer to Kiriyenka and when they approached the final climb, the battle for position made the pace increase dramatically. Katusha and Radioshack battled for control with the latter leading the peloton on the final piece of flat roads, Gregory Rast, Markel Irizar and Yaroslav Popovych all taking turns on the front.

Sørensen sets off in pursuit

The chasers started the final climb with a time gap of 1.49 to Kiriyenka and just before they turned onto the lower slopes, Sørensen attacked on his own. The Dane quickly got a big gap while the group split to pieces, leaving just Kohler, Martinez and Hansen to chase the Saxo-Tinkoff rider.

When the peloton hit the climb, they were 5.09 behind Kiriyenka as Dmitriy Kozontchuk (Katusha) was the first rider to hit the steep slopes. Horner has ordered a fierce tempo from the bottom and his teammates Ben Hermans and Matthew Busche made the peloton crumble.

Herrada sets a fierce pace

Valverde had big plans and so asked Jose Herrada to up the pace even further and in a matter for a few minutes, only Herrada, Kiserlvski, Horner, Nibali, Kangert, Rodriguez, Moreno, Caruso, Valverde, Roche, Majka, Pozzovivo, Scarpni, König, Sanchez, Huzarski, Ulissi, Pinot and Nieve remained in the main group. Nieve and Huzarski fell off the pace while Anton rejoined the group.

Roche asked Majka to set the pace and the Pole led the peloton on the small flat stretch at the midpoint of the climb. As soon as the road got a bit steeper, Moreno accelerated fiercely with Rodriguez, Valverde, Nibali, Horner and Roche on his wheel while all other riders fell off the pace.

Valverde cracks

They caught Vicioso who took a huge turn for his captain Rodriguez while Valverde cracked. A gap opened up but Horner had no trouble bridging across. Nibali had to dig a bit deeper but the Italian managed to get back up to the Katusha trio.

Vicioso fell off and left the pace-setting to Moreno. When he finished his job, Horner hit the front and set a brutal pace. The trio caught Clarke who surprisingly lend a hand to Horner despite the two riders not being teammates.

Nibali in difficulty

Horner was back on the front a little later and that was too much for Rodriguez who fell off the pace. With 1km to go, Nibali also cracked and while he zigzagged his way up the climb, Horner rode away with apparent ease.

He kept overtaking several escapees but he never managed to catch Kiriyenka who took a beautiful solo win. Sørensen, Hansen, Kohler and Martinez also managed to hold off Horner who finished 6th on the stage, just ahead of Txurruka.

Nibali was in severe difficulties and was overtaken by both Rodriguez and Valverde who had gauged his effort perfectly and managed to finish in the same time as his compatriot. The race leader lost 25 seconds to Horner and so remains in red but only with a tiny 3-second advantage.

Result:

1. Vasil Kiryienka 4.46.48

2. Chris Anker Sørensen +0.28

3. Adam Hansen +1.18

4. Martin Kohler +1.34

5. Egoi Martinez +1.42

6. Chris Horner +1.53

7. Amets Txurruka +2.02

8. Joaquim Rodriguez +2.13

9. Alejandro Valverde

10. Vincenzo Nibali +2.18

General classification: