Riding his last Grand Tour for Euskatel, the team where he has always ridden, Sanchez were expected to put in a very solid performance to show off the orange colours of the Basque team, for the last time before the team closes at the end of the season.

So often the orange dressed riders have been flying up the mountains, but today they were nowhere to be seen in the front of the race as basically all riders tried to help their team captain loose as little time as possible. Only Mikel Nieve stayed in the peloton.

He explained the situation: ”I’ve had a bad day and I’ve remained with no strength. Sport is like that. It wasn’t a very hard stage. What happened to me can happen to other riders as well. It’s not the end of the world and it doesn’t change my motivation. I’m still up for a very emotional Vuelta.

Hopefully he will be able to find his strength later in the race, because there is no doubt that the extremely mountainous course will be more interesting with the orange dressed riders flying up the mountains.