Vergara tops GW Shimano 1-2

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A relaxing day on the road came down to a few tense seconds as GW Shimano’s Jaime Vegara outsprinted his teammate Juan Pablo Villegas to take stage 11 of the Vuelta a Colombia in the town of Pereira.

Vegara and Indeportes Antioquia’s Carlos Betancourt, who finished third on the day, broke from the main field late and were just able to hold the pack off as Villegas bridged their tiny gap in the last couple hundred meters. Vegara, Villegas and Betancourt were all awarded the same times for the stage.

""The team worked real hard today to win the stage by staying in the breakaways all day," Vergara said. "I just thank God for giving me the power to win the stage."

Thanks to the peloton rolling in only seconds later the standing in the general classification remain virtually the same, with Indeportes Antioquia’s Sergio Luis Henao leading EPM-UNE’s Francisco Colorado by 3:29. Henao’s teammate Óscar Sevilla is in third 3:31 behind, with Loteria de Boyacá’s Jose Rujano3:47 back on the lead in fourth.

"I'm very happy to be able to keep the leader's jersey today," Henao said. "The rest day was perfect for the team because we felt we could push it today if we needed to."

The town on Yumbo, outside of Cali, is where Thursday’s stage 11 began in a haze of smog thanks to the nearby factories spewing smoke into the surrounding hills and from the start the pace of the stage was light and relaxed as the peloton got its legs going after Wednesday’s rest day.

The field stuck together through the first 100 km, as the Super Giros squad controlled the peloton and helped their sprinter Carlos Alzate gain some much needed sprint points when the race passed through the day’s first intermediate sprint in Yotoco.

Shortly after the day’s first sprint a break finally occurred when six riders that included pre-race favorite Mauricio Ortega of EPM-UNE, Geovanny Chacon of GW Shimano and the very active Victor Hugo González of Nectar de Cundinamarca took off from the peloton.

Ortega lead the break and won the day’s second sprint through Ondina, after which he decided to drop off the back and rejoin the peloton that was just over a minute behind. Ortega was expected by many to be a main threat in this year’s Vuelta a Colombia, but has so far done little to impress as he sits in 29th place and is 46 minutes and 49 seconds back on Henao.

After Ortega’s departure the days break looked doomed to be swallowed up by the main field as their gap was slowly disintegrating. However a four-man break shot out of the peloton and was able to catch up with the original move before the day’s final sprint.

In the joining break were Nectar de Cundinamarca’s Diego Quintero, Fuerzas Armadas-Ejercito Nacional’s Willinton Bustamante, Formesan-Panachi’s Alexander Rojas and Boyacá de Orgullo de America’s Michael Rodriguez.

Soon after forming up the group split, as Quintero, EBSA’s Victor Niño and GW Shimano’s Chacon took off from the field with Bustamante leaving the group soon after. Quintero, Niño and Chacon were able to hold the field off over the day’s only categorized climb, the mild category three Pasavias into Pereira. However as the race wove its way through the city streets the three riders got taken back into the main field.

In the last 3 km after the reforming of the field, Vegara and Betancourt attempted to break free and held off the field with Villegas joining them at the finish, with the two GW Shimano riders finishing ahead of Indeportes Antioquia’s Betancourt.

Stage 11 could have been considered a rest day for the peloton before the two tough days ahead of the peloton on its way to the final stage time trial in Medellín on Sunday.

Friday’s stage 12 from Pereira to Manizales is only 117 km but takes riders over four categorized climbs including the final category one climb up to the Plaza de Toros, 5km before the finish. Friday and Saturday will the last days that riders like Colorado and Rujano have at putting a dent in their gap with Henao.