Igor Anton tangled with Euskatel Euskadi teammate Egoi Martinez approaching the final 6-km climb of the stage, a nasty high-speed (65 kph) multi-rider pileup.
Caisse d’Epargne’s Marzio Bruseghin, sixth overall, was also caught up in the crash. None of the riders were severely injured, apparently, but both Egoi Martinez and Igor Anton were hospitalized, and Anton, much of his flesh shredded, withdrew immediately.
Ahead of the crash, Garmin-Transition’s David Millar and Milram’s Niki Terpstra had a little over a minute’s gap on the peloton, but Millar was fading. Terpstra had attacked at 35 km, while Millar and teammate Dave Zabriskie decided to bridge at the 50-km mark. It took the pair 13 km to catch Terpstra, then the three stayed out in front by as much as ten minutes before Cervelo kicked off the chase.
Zabriskie dropped out with 20 km to go, the other two, with Millar doing most of the work, pressed on.
Caisse d’Epargne made a tactical assault late in the stage, massing riders at the head of the peloton and sending David Arroyo and the Luis-Leon Sanchez on attacks, trying to exhaust Euskatel.
Euskatel picked up the gauntlet and picked up the pace to protect Igor Anton’s red jersey.
Caisse d’Epargne pushed the pace even harder on the second-to-last climb, the Cat 2 Alto del Caracol, tearing up the peloton. Euskatel responded again, leading eventually to the disastrous crash.
Niki Terpstra attacked Millar halfway up the final climb, leaving the Grmin rider, but Terpstra didn’t stay away much longer. Liquigas, riding for Vincenzo Nibali, pushed the pace up the climb, dropping all but a handful of really strong riders.
With 1.5 km to go, Nibali made his attack, and initially no one responded. Then Katusha’s Joaquin Rodriguez, wanting the red jersey back, took off after the Liquigas rider, catching him just before the one-kilometer banner.
Rodriguez trailed Nibali for 200 meters, then attacked, dropping Nibali. Nibali couldn’t catch the Katusha rider, but he didn’t let up; the gap in GC times was too small for Nibali to rest if he wanted the red jersey.
Ezequiel Mosquera, Fränk Schleck and Xavier Tondo also attacked with a kilometer to go, but couldn’t catch the leaders, though Mosquera came within two seconds of Nibali. David Moncoutie and Nicholas Roche rode past schlock and Tondo at the end.
Cervelo’s challenge didn’t pay off. Tondo lost one place in the GC and Carlos Sastre finished the stage fifteenth, tenth in the GC almost four minutes back.
Euskatel’s race is ruined; after two weeks of hard work to get their rider Igor Anton into the lead, the team lost everything: two riders, and all hope for a win or even a decent finish.
The big winners were Liquigas and Katusha. Vincenzo Nibali has the red jersey, though only by four seconds, and Katusha’s Joaquin Rodriguez has fifty seconds over his nearest competitor. Rodriguez has been riding well throughout the Vuelta, and has to be seen as a strong favorite—even if his time trialing is weak.
Stage 15 has only a single categorized climb: the Beyond-Category Lagos de Covadonga, 12 kilometers of 7 percent incline with ramps above 13 percent, which finishes the stage. After 175 km of minor bumps, the peloton do battle on this beast of a climb. Look for numerous late-race attacks, and maybe a new race leader.
|
Vuelta a España Stage Fourteen |
|||
|
|
Rider |
Team |
Time |
|
1 |
Joaquin Rodriguez |
Katusha |
4:26:43 |
|
2 |
Vincenzo Nibali |
Liquigas-Doimo |
+0:00:20 |
|
3 |
Ezequiel Mosquera |
Xacobeo Galicia |
+0:00:22 |
|
4 |
David Moncoutie |
Cofidis |
+0:00:33 |
|
5 |
Nicolas Roche |
Ag2R |
+0:00:34 |
|
6 |
Frank Schleck |
Saxo Bank |
+0:00:35 |
|
7 |
Xavier Tondo |
Cervélo Test Team |
+0:00:39 |
|
8 |
David García |
Xacebo-Galicia |
+0:00:43 |
|
9 |
Peter Velits |
HTC-Columbia |
+0:00:45 |
|
10 |
Thomas Danielson |
Garmin-Transitions |
+0:01:29 |
|
2010 Vuelta a Espana General Classification |
|||
|
|
Rider |
Team |
Time |
|
1 |
Vincenzo Nibali |
Liquigas-Doimo |
60:55:39 |
|
2 |
Joaquin Rodriguez |
Katusha |
0:00:04 |
|
3 |
Ezequiel Mosquera |
Xacobeo Galicia |
0:00:50 |
|
4 |
Xavier Tondo |
Cervélo Test Team |
0:00:50 |
|
5 |
Nicolas Roche |
Ag2R |
0:02:11 |
|
6 |
Frank Schleck |
Saxo Bank |
0:02:12 |
|
7 |
Peter Velits |
HTC-Columbia |
0:02:29 |
|
8 |
Thomas Danielson |
Garmin-Transitions |
0:03:29 |
|
9 |
Ruben Plaza |
Caisse d’Epargne |
0:03:41 |
|
10 |
Carlos Sastre |
Cervelo |
0:03:52 |
