Aramón Valdelinares, 31st of August – 2014
Today’s 185 kilometer long 9th stage of Vuelta a Espana from Carboneras de Guadazaón to the mountain top finish on the first category climb, Aramón Valdelinares was far from the biggest challenge in this year’s Spanish Grand Tour. But a battle between the GC favorites was nevertheless expected. Tinkoff-Saxo’s Alberto Contador has shown surprisingly good form until now considering his build-up for the race and he was third overall before today’s thrilling finale.
A big group of 31 riders created the breakaway and they worked tenaciously hard to keep the overall favorites behind as they were approaching the final slope as well as facing lower temperatures and rain. With 15 kilometers to go, the gap was still more than five minutes to the remains of the front group, that started to crumble on the last climb.
Entering the final slope, Winner Anacona (Lampre) took off from the front group to solo his way up the mountain to take the stage while peloton kept slimming down behind. Tinkoff-Saxo’s Alberto Contador was hanging on to the back wheel of Chris Froome (Sky) as he had no teammates in the group of 25 riders with 4 kilometers to go.
Dan Martin (Garmin-Sharp) was the first from the chase group to attack with 2 kilometers to go but then Contador jumped out of his saddle and danced up the slope and instantly distanced Froome. Joaquin Rodriguez (Katusha) and Nairo Quintana (Movistar) however bridged the gap to Alberto and the Movistar took the overall lead of the race.
But once again, Alberto Contador took everyone by surprise with a fierce attack and is now second overall – only 3 seconds behind Quintana. Our DS, Steven De Jongh says:
“It was a very good day for Alberto and I think everyone saw a very strong Contador in the final. It was a bit of a nightmare in the rainy finale and we saw a lot of riders standing completely still. The first hour was very hard, we did over 47 km/h. It was never easy today, it was fast and they kept going full gas but we can be satisfied with today’s result and now it’s time to recover for the time trial Tuesday.”
Our Swiss climber, Oliver Zaugg had this comment shortly after having finished the stage:
“The weather made the last climb really difficult today. The rain started on the descent before the final climb and made it really difficult to climb up to the mountain finish . Now, I think we’re all looking forward to a rest day”.
Valverde
Stage result:
1 Winner Anacona Gomez (Col) Lampre-Merida 4:34:14
2 Alexey Lutsenko (Kaz) Astana Pro Team 0:00:45
3 Damiano Cunego (Ita) Lampre-Merida 0:00:50
4 Javier Moreno Bazan (Spa) Movistar Team 0:01:04
5 Peio Bilbao (Spa) Caja Rural – Seguros RGA 0:01:12
6 Jerome Coppel (Fra) Cofidis, Solutions Credits 0:01:21
7 Ryder Hesjedal (Can) Garmin Sharp 0:01:33
8 Adam Hansen (Aus) Lotto Belisol 0:01:45
9 Bob Jungels (Lux) Trek Factory Racing 0:01:49
10 Fabio Felline (Ita) Trek Factory Racing 0:02:08
12. Alberto Contador
Overall rankings after stage 9
1 Nairo Alexander Quintana Rojas (Col) Movistar Team 35:58:05
2 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Tinkoff-Saxo 0:00:03
3 Alejandro Valverde Belmonte (Spa) Movistar Team 0:00:08
4 Winner Anacona Gomez (Col) Lampre-Merida 0:00:09
5 Christopher Froome (GBr) Team Sky 0:00:28
6 Joaquin Rodriguez Oliver (Spa) Team Katusha 0:00:30
7 Fabio Aru (Ita) Astana Pro Team 0:01:06
8 Robert Gesink (Ned) Belkin Pro Cycling Team 0:01:19
9 Rigoberto Urán (Col) Omega Pharma – Quick-Step Cycling Team 0:01:26
10 Warren Barguil (Fra) Team Giant-Shimano
