Duarte tops Sevilla in mountain battle

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Youth conquered experience once again, as for the second time in this year’s Vuelta a Colombia Fabio Duarte of Colombia es Pasión beat out Indeportes Antioquia’s Óscar Sevilla in a finish line sprint. However unlike stage five’s photo finish, Duarte outsprinted Sevilla by two seconds to take Stage 12 in Manizales.

Duarte and Sevilla were part of a four-man break, which included Loteria de Boyacá’s Jose Rujano and Duarte’s teammate Alex Cano, that took off on the day’s final climb, a category one that ended in Manizales’ Plaza de Toros.

After crossing the climb 45 seconds ahead of race leader Sergio Luis Henao, the four jostled through the tightly packed streets of Manizales before Duarte made his move. Sevilla jumped with him, but was unable to stay with the young Colombian.

“I saw Rujano come to my rear wheel on the final climb and I just tried to stay very calm and think about the finish,” Duarte said.

Race leader Sergio Luis Henao of Indeportes Antioquia finished 37 seconds back on Duarte, but maintained his hold on the tri-color leader’s jersey. His teammate and former race leader, Sevilla, made up time on the day and now sits in second place, two minutes and thirty seconds back on the lead with Rujano jumping to third, two minutes and 50 seconds behind Henao.

“I had some problems today, but tomorrow I hope to be better for the stage,” Henao said of the stomach problems he was having during the stage. “Rujano attacked so many times on the final climb, but I was lucky to have two strong teammates in Sevilla and [Jannier] Acevedo that can control the stage.”

The 117 km stage 12 between Pereira and Manizales promised to be action packed, as the Vuelta entered its last three days of racing and from the beginning teams started making moves.

A 17-rider break kicked the day’s action off early and had established a two minute and thirty second lead over the main field by the time it passed through the day’s first intermediate sprint, 32 km in.

Leading the break was Loteria de Boyacá’s Jose Alarcon and Nectar de Cundinamarca’s Giovanni Balsero, who went one and two over the day’s first category three climb, El Ático. Also making moves was GW Shimano’s Jaime Vegara, who hoped to gain back some points in the King of the Mountain’s competition.

Vegara led the break over the second climb, the category three Alto Industrial, but as the group hit the third climb of the day it began to look a bit strung out.

The peloton was closing down on the slopes of the challenging category three Alto Boquerón and it was only thanks to a late attack that two from the original break, Boyacá Orgullo de America’s Fernando Camargo and Colombia es Pasión’s Robinson Chalapud, were able to escape and claim the top mountain points.

Duarte also made a jump from the peloton on the climb, crossing the mountain two minutes after Camargo and Chalapud but only five seconds in front of the Indeportes Antioquia-helmed main field.

When the race hit the bottom of the final category one climb to Manizales the GC contenders had positioned themselves to pounce. An 11-rider group that included Henao, Rujano and Sevilla began making its way up the climb and passing the remnants of the day's break.

Duarte was farther up the climb with Camargo and EBSA’s Libardo Niño when Rujano made a move to shake the 11-man chase. Sevilla and Cano went with him and together caught up with Duarte’s bunch.

Rujano set a quick pace on the steep climb and by the time he led them over the summit only Cano, Sevilla and Duarte remained in the group.

With only 5 km to the finish, the riders all marked each other before Duarte made his winning move with Sevilla on his tail.

“Today Duarte and Cano were very tough to keep up with,” Sevilla said. “The most important thing for me was to finish ahead of or alongside of Rujano.”

The penultimate stage from Manizales to the summit finish on the Alto de Las Palmas will be the final test for Henao in his quest to keep the leader’s jersey. The 206 km stage takes the peloton over two categorized climbs, including the mythical category one Alto de Minas, before the finish in Las Palmas.

Henao will need to ride smart and be ready for constant attacks by Rujano if he wants to maintain his lead going into Sunday’s time trial. One thing the Indeportes Antioquia rider has over the Venezuelan Rujano is that Henao is from nearby Rio Negro and knows the Alto de las Palmas climb very well.

“Tomorrow is very hard and I hope the team has a good stage,” Henao said. “We need to remember that it is about winning the Vuelta, not the stage.”

By day’s end tomorrow the winner of the 2010 Vuelta a Colombia should more or less be decided.

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