Cunego conquers Vuelta's first mountain finish, Evans takes lead

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Damiano Cunego crowned off a somewhat disappointing season by winning the first mountain stage of the Vuelta a Espana. The Lampre-NGC rider leapt away from an elite lead group which had caught most of the day's breakaway, leaving just one rider for Cunego to catch and pass in the final kilometres.

"In the finale I followed the actions of Sylvester Szmyd and Ivan Basso, and then I decided to try in for myself," said the overjoyed Italian. His impressive attack carried him through to his first Vuelta stage win in his career.

The win was a big confidence-booster for Cunego, who is planned to be of the Italian team's captains at the World Championships in Mendrisio, Switzerland, later this month. He showed his climbing legs are coming good in advance of the worlds, which features two climbs on each of the 19 laps of a 13.8 km course. Cunego had gone into the Vuelta to prepare for the Worlds, saying he hoped to impress national coach Franco Ballerini with a good performance.

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The 27-year-old emphasised what the stage win meant to him. "My goal is the Worlds in Mendrisio, and I came to Spain to prepare well. It was important to get a great result after a difficult year. I have had a lot of criticism in this period, but I think I gave the right answer."

It was only the fourth win this season for Cunego. He earlier took the overall title in the Settimana Coppi e Bartoli, winning two stages along the way.

Lampre's "Little Prince" attacked out of a chase group with a little more than two kilometres to go to catch and pass David Moncoutie (Cofidis), who was the only rider left of an escape group.

The Frenchman finished second, and third place went to Robert Gesink of Rabobank, who jumped out of the small group of favourites.

Cadel Evans of Silence-Lotto took over the race lead with a fourth place finish on the day, in the group which came across the line 44 seconds behind Cunego. He was closely followed over the finish line by Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d'Epargne) and Eusakaltel's Samuel Sanchez, who crashed during the stage. The two Spaniards moved up into second and third place overall.

The gold jersey now means that Australian Evans has now worn the leader's jersey in all three Grand Tours. He didn't come to the Vuelta with "any particular motivation," he said, but the last two day's results have changed that.

"At first I didn't think I would make it to Madrid, but I a feel well and I want to ride to the end."

"Tomorrow I will again try to do well, but I have a young team, which is not very experience but certainly very motivated and strong that you think," the 32-year-old added.

Valverde was satisfied with his performance, and that of his team which did a large portion of the work to bring the breakaway back.

"It was the first important test and we saw that most of the favorites for final win have more or less the same level."

"As well Evans, as Basso, Sánchez, Mosquera and Gesink who attacked in the final, we controlled each other behind Cunego, who went for stage win and was no danger for the general classification."

Garmin-Slipstream's Tom Danielson stayed with the group of favourites on the final climb, a feat which few others were able to accomplish, finishing in 11th place, six seconds behind the group of Evans. The American put in a strong time trial the previous day to move up to move up to eighth, and he used his climbing abilities to move up again into fourth overall.

As expected, the closing climb, Alto de Aitana, an hors categorie climb with an average gradient of 5.7% and max of 9%, ruthlessly weeded out the pretenders from the contenders. A large group of 50 to 60 riders started up that final climb together, only to fall apart as the top climbers ground down their weaker brothers.

How it unfolded

This stage was the first true mountain test of this year's Vuelta. Four category three climbs, three category two climbs and to top it all off, a mountaintop finish of the 'especial' category. The first climb didn't come until km 52, but after that they came with regularity, thrilling the hearts of the climbers and chilling the hearts of all others.

Things got off to a fast and furious start on a day that was fortunately dryer than the previous day. Right from the start there were multiple escape attempts, but all were doomed to failure until 37 km in. That's when a sextet got away: Pieter Weening (Rabobank), David Moncoutie (Cofidis), Johnny Hoogerland (Vacansoleil), Sébastien Hinault (AG2R La Mondiale), Paul Voss (Team Milram) and William Bonnet (BBox Bouygues Telecom).

The group worked well together and quickly built up a lead of over 15 minutes. About halfway through the stage, Caisse d'Epargne decided that was enough and took over the lead work of the chasing peloton. Almost immediately the gap started coming down.

There was one major surprise along the way, as Saxo Bank's Andy Schleck unexpectedly dropped out of the race. The young Luxembourger, who finished second in this year's Tour de France, told Cyclingnews that he had stomach cramps and had been unable to eat since the previous night.

Saxo Bank's Fabian Cancellara, who had reclaimed the leader's gold jersey Saturday at the time trial, gave his best on the climbs, but they were too much for him. He lost contact on the penultimate climb up the Alto de Tudonos, caught up and then fell back for good.

Another who dropped back on the final climb was Xacobeo's David Herrero, who finished well in the previous day's time trial to put himself in third place overall.

Euskaltel-Euskadi's captain and Olympic road champion Samuel Sanchez fell behind on the descent of the Tudonos. He explained that he stopped to get a new bike after a mechanical, and while chasing back on he crashed in a bend.

"It was important to chase back to the lead group but it cost me," said Sanchez, who was visibly pained during the final ascent.

"It hurts when I breathe deep. I suffered to hold on to Evans and Valverde on the climb, but I had some really bad moments. We'll see how it goes, but I'm very worried. Tomorrow's stage is very demanding, so we'll see how I respond."

The peloton was content to let the group go all out most of the way, knowing that the final climb up the Alto de Aitana would blow things apart.

Voss and Bonnet were the first to drop out of the lead group as they headed up the closing 21 km climb. Weening and Moncoutie were the next to drop back. Hinault was unable to keep up, and Vacansoliel's Hoogerland continued on alone.

Moncoutie recovered on the climb and joined Hoogerland again. Behind them, Caisse d'Epargne, followed by Liquigas, calmly led the chase. More and more riders fell off the back. With 10 km to go, the gap had dropped to under two minutes, and the peloton was reduced to some 50 to 60 riders.

Alexander Vinokourov of Astana and Saxo Bank's Fränk Schleck and Jacob Fuglsang were among those unable to keep up with the favourites.

Moncoutie was unwilling to give up and kept on pushing the tempo, but Hoogerland hung on. The further up the leading duo went, the steeper it got, playing to Moncoutie's strengths. The Frenchman was alone in the lead with 5 km to go.

Silence-Lotto, riding for Cadel Evans, moved up to share the closing chase work with Valverde's Caisse d'Epargne squad. Ivan Basso (Liquigas) and Damiano Cunego (Lampre) also hovered near the front of the group.

Liquigas moved to the front as Caisse d'Epargne had used itself up. The long hard climb ground down the group, but the top favourites of Valverde, Evans, Basso and Cunego were all there. Behind them, the group kept getting smaller and smaller.

With three km to go, Moncoutie rode into the mountaintop fog. Back in the pack, Basso tried to take off from a group now reduced to 15 or so, but they wouldn't let him go. Valverde, Evans, and Cunego clung fast to his rear wheel, and the size of the group declined almost every minute.

Cunego didn't cling long, though, taking off out of the group just before the 2 km marker. He quickly caught Hoogerland and kept on going into the fog. The Italian was strong enough and fresh enough to catch Moncoutie within the last kilometre.

"The little prince" rolled over the finish line, still looking fresh despite his over six hours' ride. Moncoutie hung on for second, and Robert Gesink (Rabobank) had jumped out of the chase group to take third.