Saturday’s stage 8 was finally a day for the pure sprinters in the 2014 Vuelta a España. As the longest stage in this year’s Spanish tour, the 207 km course from Baeza to Albacete took place in somewhat cooler temperatures but wind was a factor in the finale.

“We knew that in the last 40 km it would be very dangerous because of the strong cross wind, so we were prepared for that. The guys took Joaquim on the wheel and moved him to the front before the dangerous moment. A few teams accelerated in the cross winds and caused echelons to form, but we were in the right place and stayed in front with no problems. In the final we had four riders in the front group with Joaquim so we saved the stage and retained our positions. I am very happy with the way our team worked for “Purito” today. They did a really good job,” said team director José Azevedo to the Katusha website.

A small split occurred in the windy section but hard work from the chasing group brought it all back together at the 5 km to go mark, setting up the predicted mass sprint. After almost four-and-a-half hours of racing, the scene was set for a group sprint to the line with Nacer Bouhanni just edging out Michael Matthews to take his second stage win in this year’s La Vuelta. Third place went to Cannondale’s Peter Sagan.

The general classification saw no changes at the top of the leader board. Alessandro Valverde kept the red leader’s jersey by 15-seconds to his Movistar teammate Nairo Quintana and another 3-seconds to third place Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo). Team Katusha’s Joaquim Rodriguez remains in sixth place after 8 stages of racing.

Sunday brings another day for the overall contenders with the longest climb so far at 8 km. The 187 km stage begins in Carboneras de Guadazaón and ends uphill at Aramón Valdelinares.  With the rest day coming on Monday and a time trial the following day, there should be plenty of riders dreaming of victory and willing to give their all in stage 9.