Vuelta enters its final week with four in the frame

After yesterday's rest day the Vuelta resumes with some tough stages before the finish in Madrid on Sunday. Until Monday's stage it looked like Vincenzo Nibali would be the comfortable winner. However losing a little time on Monday means that he is now only 28 seconds ahead of nearly 42-year-old Chris Horner, 1.14 mins ahead of Alejandro Valverde and 2.29 ahead of Joaquin Rodriguez, who is often very strong in the third week of a major tour.

After a flattish stage today, there still are three mountain stages to come culminating in the very steep Angliru climb on Saturday, where the Tour of Spain could yet be decided.

Chris Horner, Nibali's closest rival, has ridden a remarkable race, especially for a man of nearly 42. This is certainly easily Horner's best ride ever in a major Tour and he has looked strong on all of the climbs. After Armstrong there are inevitably doubts, so I just hope he is clean.    

 

#TDF13: Quintana confirms promise – Froome wins 2013 Tour

At the end of an exciting climb up to the ski station of Semnoz above Annecy 23 year old Nairo Quintana sprinted away from Chris Froome and Joaquin Rodriguez to win his first Tour de France stage and to confirm his promise. Quintana not only won the stage but took the King of the Mountains competition as well as the White Jersey for the best young rider and moved himself up to second on the podium in Paris.

Quintana finished 18 seconds ahead of Rodriguez and 29 seconds ahead of Chris Froome, who has become the first African born rider to win the Tour and the second British Sky rider to take the Yellow Jersey to Paris after Bradley Wiggins last year. He now leads Quintana by 5.03 seconds. Rodriguez moved up to third place. There is no doubt that Froome has been the Tour's dominant rider and thoroughly deserves his victory. 

Aggressive riding by Sky in the lead up to the final climb detonated the peloton with further damage inflicted by Alejandro Valverde before attacks by Rodriguez, Quintana and Froome did for the rest of the much reduced pack.In the final selection about halfway up the climb Froome was able to sprint across to Quintana and Rodriguez. Once again Alberto Contador was left floundering at a crunch moment in the mountains. This time his weakness cost him his second place dropping him down to fourth.

Overall standings

Top ten overall after Stage 20

  1. Chris Froome                    80.49.33
  2. Nairo Quintana                    + 5.03
  3. Joaquin Rodriguez                   5.47
  4. Alberto Contador                     7.11
  5. Roman Kreuziger                     8.10
  6. Bauke Mollema                      12.25
  7. Jakob Fuglsang                      13.00
  8. Alejandro Valverde                 16.09
 8.  Daniel Navarro                       16.35
10. Andrew Talansky                    18.22

 

Today's stage into Paris should be a spectacular show with the race held in the evening for the first time. For the GC riders it will be a procession – for the sprinters it will be a final gallop. Will Mark Cavendish win for the fifth successive year on the Champs Elysées or will it be Marcel Kittel, André Griepel or Peter Sagan?  Cav may have some advantage over Kittel and Griepel as Omega Pharma Quickstep has a full team whereas the other two have lost important lead out riders. Whatever the result Peter Sagan has won the Green Jersey for the second successive year.     

    

#TDF13: Another fine win by Rui Costa while Chris Froome closes on victory

Yesterday was another brutal day in the Alps with 5000 metres of climbing starting with two HC climbs – the Col du Glandon and La Madeleine. Rui Costa took the stage win with a fine solo attack over the final climb Col de Croix-Fry before descending alone into Le Grand Bornand.  This takes Costa's overall stage wins to three.

The stage also featured a fine solo effort by Pierre Rolland to pick up mountain points – he now stands just a point behind Chris Froome in this competition. As there are 50 points on offer at the top of the Semnoz at the end of today's stage so I would be surprised if Rolland manages to win the Polka Dot jersey.

Amongst the GC contenders there were no major attacks, so Froome and Sky had a relatively quiet although tiring day. It is obvious that many of the riders are now very tired.

Only today's short but tough stage (125K) that finishes atop Semnoz after five other climbs stands between Chris Froome and victory. Barring accidents or Chris Froome having a terrible day he should remain in Yellow and ride into Paris as the winner. Apart from the sprinters the ride into Paris is a procession. I suspect that the focus of the GC action will be on the fight for podium places. Only 47 seconds separate places second to fifth. Will Alberto Contador manage to hold onto his second place or will Nairo Quintana take it from him and will Joaquin Rodriguez continue his late surge and grab third place?

Top ten overall after Stage 19

  1. Chris Froome                    77.10.00 
  2. Alberto Contador                  + 5.11
  3. Nairo Quintana                        5.32
  4. Roman Kreuziger                     5.44 
  5. Joaquin Rodriguez                   5.58
  6. Bauke Mollema                       8.58
  7. Jakob Fuglsang                       9.33
  8. Daniel Navarro                      12.33
  9. Alejandro Valverde                14.56
10. Michal Kwiatowski                 16.08

 

 

#TDF13: Riblon wins on L'Alpe, Froome bonks + hugely tough stage ahead

To the delight of France Christophe Riblon won the Queen stage on the top of L'Alpe d'Huez, which was climbed twice. Riblon was part of a stage long break which at one time had nearly nine minutes on the peloton. It was an incident packed stage for Riblon who ran off the road on the way down the narrow Col de Sarenne. On both ascents of the Alpe he was dropped by Tejay Van Garderen and then clawing his way back. Van Garderen had a problem with his chain on the descent of Sarenne and had a long chase to catch up with Riblon and Moreno Moser. It may be that Van Garderen paid for this effort when he blew up towards the top of the Alpe and was unable to respond when Riblon sailed past him.

Alberto Contador tried an attack on Chris Froome on the tricky Sarenne descent but was caught before the start of the second ascent of the Alpe. Froome, himself, ran into bonk problems within the last five kilometres of the climb and lost time (1.03) to Nairo Quintana and Joaquin Rodriguez. Froome got Richie Porte to go back to the team car to get food and drink – banned within the last six kilometres of the stage. Chris was very lucky to have Porte on hand to help him to the finish. He and Porte were docked 20 seconds each for this breach of the rules. Froome does, however, have a time cushion of 5.11 over Alberto Contador his closest rival. Quintana moved up to third overall booking a place on the podium and with a comfortable lead in the White jersey competition. Joaquin Rodriguez is threatening while the Belkin pair Bauke Mollema and Laurens Ten Dam have fallen back.

Overall standings after Stage 18

  1. Chris Froome                    71.02.19

  2. Alberto Contador                  + 5.11

  3. Nairo Quintana                         5.32

  4. Roman Kreuziger                     5.44 

  5. Joaquin Rodriguez                    5.58

  6. Bauke Mollema                         8.58

  7. Jakob Fuglsang                        9.33

  8. Michael Rogers                       14.26

  9. Michal Kwiatowski                  14.38

10. Laurens Ten Dam                    14.39 

Today's stage to Le Grand Bornand is another very tough stage with two HC climbs within the first 85 kilometres of the stage. Then there are still three climbs – a 2nd Cat and two 1st Cat. The top of the last climb the Col de la Croix Fry is just 14K from the finish. Anyone losing time on the final climb is unlikely to be able to make up much time of the descent.

It will be very interesting to see if Froome's problem on the Alpe was just down to lack of food and drink or whether he is weakening. Also will Contador manage to hold onto his podium place.         

      

2012 Vuelta: Contador wins the war but Joaquin Rodriguez wins most of the battles

Today Alberto Contador duly won the very exciting and extremely tough 2012 Vuelta a España with the very impressive John Degenkolb taking his fifth sprint victory. 

I would have much preferred to have seen Joaquin Rodriguez win overall victory rather than Contador, who is just back from his doping suspension. Rodriguez proved on a number of occasions that he was superior to both Contador and Alejandro Valverde on the many climbs. Unfortunately he was comprehensively sandbagged on Stage 17 when Contador soloed to victory on Fuente Dé after the last rest day. I just trust that Contador was clean that day and won both the stage and the overall race on his own merit.