Orica-GreenEDGE worked hard all day, trying to set Michael Matthews up for another stage win, but knew that the final climb could be too tough for their Australian captain. In the end, he was unable to keep up with the best and the team admitted that they had made a bit of a gamble.

Colombian Esteban Chaves was ORICA-GreenEDGE’s top finisher on stage 13 of the Vuelta a Espana this afternoon in 25th position.

A short but sharp climb made for a tough finish for Chaves who now sits in 18th position overall.

“It was really a stage that doesn’t suit Esteban so his role today was just to get to the bottom right up there,” sport director Neil Stephens said.

“We didn’t want him to try to give away time, but if he lost 15seconds well so be it.  At the end of the day 15seconds in a few days time is not going to be anything, there will be gaps of 15minutes.

“There are some extremely difficult stages coming up and he is really looking forward to the mountain stages. He will look to find his place in the peloton once again and continue with the work ethic we have had up until now.”

Looking for a repeat of the team effort that saw a victory for Michael Matthews on stage three, ORICA-GreenEDGE took some ownership of the chase after a breakaway of 11 riders established 15km into the stage.

“We thought today’s stage might be similar to the stage three that we won so we took it out there and tried our best to see what we could do,” Stephens explained.

“Obviously it was a bit of a risk. A few months ago we discussed whether this stage was achievable or not but after Michael won stage three, we thought that there was some potential even though we knew that the final climb up to the finish was a hell of a lot steeper. 

“It’s unrealistic to think that every time we go out with an objective and every time we go out with an intention to win that we are going to, otherwise we would win 150 races a year.

“But we went out and took it to them today. It didn’t come off but it was another fantastic ride by the team.”

Tomorrow’s stage 14 returns to the tougher mountains with category two and one climbs to maneuver throughout the day before a final category one finish. The stage is the first of three consecutive mountain top finishes.