Nieve wins stage. Schleck and Rodriguez move up.
A lot can happen before a rest day, and as the race leader you have to be constantly aware. Vincenzo Nibali was certainly aware, but just could not match the power shown by some of his competitors. Mikel Nieve certainly was aware of the circumstances, and took full advantage of them. He followed in the footsteps of yesterday's winner Carlos Barredo and hopped into the breakaway before losing them all on the climb and soloing to victory. I guess as far as the strategy goes, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." One man who was trying to break something was Frank Schleck, and that something was the spirits of his rivals.
Schleck, who started the day needing to get back into the race, launched a powerful attack on the Cotobello climb leaving his competitors in a frenzy to catch up. Joaquin Rodriguez eventually got things together, and though it hurt a lot, he limited his losses to Schleck to just about 18 seconds. Nibali did not fare so well, as he lost 33 seconds and the GC lead to Rodriguez and fell to 2nd on the standings. All in all, it really wasn't that much of a successful day for Schleck on paper (gained 21 seconds on 1st place and moved up to 4th), but it was a statement day saying that he is not yet ready to concede the Vuelta without a fight. As far as Rodriguez goes, it was a huge day in all aspects because he will need every single second once the time trials start. Many of the other GC riders finished within a minute of Rodriguez (Mosquera -18, Roche -22, Sastre -28, Danielson -45) Tejay Van Garderen's GC hopes came to a bitter end, though, as he finished in one of the Grupettos over 30 minutes behind.
Rest day tomorrow.
A lot can happen before a rest day, and as the race leader you have to be constantly aware. Vincenzo Nibali was certainly aware, but just could not match the power shown by some of his competitors. Mikel Nieve certainly was aware of the circumstances, and took full advantage of them. He followed in the footsteps of yesterday's winner Carlos Barredo and hopped into the breakaway before losing them all on the climb and soloing to victory. I guess as far as the strategy goes, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." One man who was trying to break something was Frank Schleck, and that something was the spirits of his rivals.
Schleck, who started the day needing to get back into the race, launched a powerful attack on the Cotobello climb leaving his competitors in a frenzy to catch up. Joaquin Rodriguez eventually got things together, and though it hurt a lot, he limited his losses to Schleck to just about 18 seconds. Nibali did not fare so well, as he lost 33 seconds and the GC lead to Rodriguez and fell to 2nd on the standings. All in all, it really wasn't that much of a successful day for Schleck on paper (gained 21 seconds on 1st place and moved up to 4th), but it was a statement day saying that he is not yet ready to concede the Vuelta without a fight. As far as Rodriguez goes, it was a huge day in all aspects because he will need every single second once the time trials start. Many of the other GC riders finished within a minute of Rodriguez (Mosquera -18, Roche -22, Sastre -28, Danielson -45) Tejay Van Garderen's GC hopes came to a bitter end, though, as he finished in one of the Grupettos over 30 minutes behind.
Rest day tomorrow.
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