Tinkoff-Saxo’s team captain Alberto Contador extended his lead in the GC after winning the queen stage of this year’s Vuelta a España dropping rival Chris Froome on the final part of the climb to La Farrapona. The duo had attacked and left the other main favorites in their wake with 5 kilometers to go, and in the last kilometer Alberto made the final move that secured him today’s solo win.
“Alberto was impressive today. He has attacked on many of the mountain stages, and today he was definitely the strongest. We did a good job today and the team worked really hard, also in the first part of the stage. In fact, the team has done a really good job the last two weeks so they all deserve this stage win today”, says sport director Steven de Jongh after the stage.
The 161-kilometer long queen stage featured five climbs – four of them being category 1. A breakaway containing 13 riders got away early but the difficulty of the terrain and overall tempo on the stage quickly diminished the size of the group. De Marchi was the last rider to get caught with 3 kilometers to go.
On the last climb, Froome was the first of the favorites to make a move with 5 kilometers to go. It came after a fierce pace had reduced the group of favorites down to 8 riders on the first part of the final 16,5-kilometer climb to La Farrapona.
Alberto Contador was the only one to respond to Froome’s acceleration sitting right in his wheel. The gap to Valverde and Rodriguez steadily increased to over 50 seconds. As the front duo reached the 1-kilometer mark, Alberto launched a strong attack and crossed the finish line 15 seconds ahead of Froome extending the overall lead.
“This win comes at the right time – just before the second rest day. It motivates Alberto and the whole team that has worked hard in the front of the peloton on all stages. He followed Froome’s move and made the difference on the last part of the climb. Now, we will focus on recovering on the rest day tomorrow and prepare to defend the lead in the final part of the Vuelta”, Steven de Jongh adds.
