Vuelta a España: Degenkolb wins in A Coruña

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Five stage victories at the Vuelta a España two years ago weren’t enough to secure the points classification for John Degenkolb, but his fourth win at this year’s race in A Coruña might well prove enough to seal the green jersey for him this time around.

In any case, Degenkolb’s storming sprint victory in Galicia demonstrated that he is the fastest man still standing in this Vuelta, and it also highlighted his credentials for another major race in north-western Spain this month – the world championships in Ponferrada.

Degenkolb faced a stiff challenge in the bunch finish in A Coruña from two other men with designs on the rainbow jersey. Michael Matthews (Orica-GreenEdge) pushed Degenkolb closest but couldn’t quite get on terms, while Fabian Cancellara led out his Trek teammate Jasper Stuyven with such ferocity that he helped himself to third place.

Degenkolb’s victory was all the more impressive considering his relative lack of help in the final kilometre. His Giant-Shimano squad had been prominent in chasing down the remnants of the break of the day in the undulating finale, and they sacrificed supporting their man in the finishing straight in order to guarantee that he would be sprinting for first place.

Their fate in Degenkolb’s speed was justified. After Rohan Dennis (BMC) and Elia Favilli (Lampre-Merida) were swept up in the final kilometre, a rather chaotic sprint ensued from a peloton that had splintered on the creases in the final kilometres.

As has been his wont at this Vuelta, Roberto Ferrari (Lampre-Merida) opted to try his luck by opening the sprint from distance, but the Italian did not have 300 metres in his legs and he faded within sight of the line.

For his part, Matthews opted to leave his sprint late, but it was Degenkolb who timed his effort best. The German hit the front 150 metres from home and he had built up enough of a head of steam to hold off Matthews, Cancellara and Stuyven to take the win.

Froome takes no chances

The day began with news that Rigoberto Uran (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) had cut his Vuelta short due to the effects of asthmatic bronchitis. Certainly, the Colombian had seemed a shadow of himself when he lost over 15 minutes at La Farrapona on Monday, and others to pull out after the rest day included Tanel Kangert (Astana) and Haimar Zubeldia (Trek).

Wednesday’s stage was widely touted as the last opportunity for the pure sprinters at although the relative paucity of their number at this juncture mean that there were still plenty of hardy souls willing to tilt at a windmill and see.

A five-man break duly sallied clear inside the opening twenty kilometres, featuring Dennis, Favilli, Bob Jungels (Trek), Luis Mas (Caja Rural) and Daniel Teklehaimanot (MTN-Qhubeka), and they quickly established a lead.

Their advantage was not permitted to stretch out much beyond four minutes, however, and it was soon clear that the fast men were indeed sufficiently motivated to have their teams peg things back for a bunch sprint. Undeterred, and with Dennis and Jungels especially prominent, the break still carried a two-minute lead into the final 25 kilometres, although the pace was continue to ratchet upwards in the peloton.

By then, Mas Bonet had dropped out of the break and Teklehaimont followed him with 10 kilometres to go. Back in the bunch, meanwhile, the uncategorised hillocks in the run-in to A Coruña called for vigilance. Not only were the likes of Orica-GreenEdge and Giant-Shimano drilling on the front, but Team Sky came to the fore inside the final five miles or so.

Their intention was not, it seems, to set Chris Froome up for a surprise attack, but simply to keep him out of danger, though red jersey Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) was careful to stick closely to his wheel on a cobbled climb with three kilometres remaining nonetheless.

Eventually, however, the general classification men melted back into the peloton and the gaps remained unchanged ahead of Thursday’s tricky finish at Mone Castrove. Contador leads Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) by 1:36, with Froome a further three seconds back.

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