Lopez bests break in Alcoy

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A tired David Lopez (Caisse d’Epargne) held off the best attempts of Roman Kreuziger (Liquigas-Doimo) and Giampaolo Caruso (Katusha) on the final drag to the finish line to take a well-deserved Vuelta a España stage victory in Alcoy.

The Spaniard was part of a 15-man breakaway that formed early on and then fragmented over the course of the stage’s seven categorised climbs. With the lead group reduced to five in the finale, the canny Lopez seized his opportunity with a clever attack on the descent of the Alto del Revolcat 5km from the finish and he managed to hold off the chasers on a testing climb to the finish line.

“I picked the right time to go alone and I suffered a lot to maintain my advantage until the finish line, but it was worth it,” Lopez said afterwards. “In the last kilometre I realized I couldn’t lose. The emotion this win generates is indescribable, I never imagined it could be so intense.”

Overall, Igor Anton (Euskaltel-Euskadi) maintains his slender overall advantage over Joaquin Rodriguez (Katusha). The Spanish duo arrived at the head of the main peloton, 7:02 behind the winner, as Rodriguez was again thwarted in his attempts to dislodge his compatriot in the final push to the line.

“I tried everything I could to gain time on Anton but It was impossible,” Rodriguez explained afterwards. “I’m disappointed, I really wanted to lead the Vuelta as the race will be in my home region of Catalonia on Tuesday.” For his part, Anton was relieved to hold on to the red jersey. “I’m just happy to hold my lead rather than let it go,” he said. “Maybe people expected more from Purito [Rodriguez] but he is still going very well.”

However, for much of the stage, it did seem as though Anton was destined to lose the red jersey, but to Jean-Christophe Péraud (Omega Pharma-Lotto) rather than Rodriguez. The Frenchman was present in the day’s main breakaway but was dropped under the impetus of David Moncoutié and Lopez in the stage finale. He eventually crossed the line in 7th place, 55 seconds back, which was ultimately sufficient to lift him to fifth place overall.

“I believed I could take the jersey today because I was aware of the gaps,” said Péraud, an Olympic mountain biker silver medallist. “It would have been great to have been paid back for all the effort I made today.”

An early break

The day’s main breakaway formed before the bunch reached the first of the climbs and the presence of race leader Anton’s teammate Egoi Martinez (Euskaltel-Euskadi) ensured that the escapees’ day passes from the peloton would be rubber-stamped. Fourteen other riders managed to escape with Martinez: Oscar Pujol (Cervelo TestTeam), Blel Kadri (AG2R-La Mondiale), Javier Ramirez (Andalucia-CajaSur), Enrico Gasparotto (Astana), Perrig Quemeneur (Bbox), David Moncoutié (Cofidis), Roman Kreuziger (Liquigas-Doimo), Jean-Christophe Peraud (Omega Pharma-Lotto), Jelle Vanendert (Omega Pharma-Lotto), Carlos Barredo (Quick Step), Dario Cataldo (Quick Step), Giampaolo Caruso (Katusha) and Gonzalo Rabunal (Xacobeo Galicia).

However, once the break’s advantage reached four minutes with 129km to go and Carlos Barredo moved into the overall lead on the road, mild alarm bells were sounded in the Euskaltel camp and the orange jerseys massed at the front of the bunch. Although they did little more than keep the gap at a manageable distance, their pursuit was ultimately sufficient to persuade Barredo to drop out of the breakaway in the final 60km so as not to jeopardise his teammate Cataldo’s hopes of going the distance, even if his director Wilfred Peters insisted that he was simply tired.

Meanwhile, at the rear of the peloton, Alessandro Petacchi (Lampre-Farnese Vini) was forced to abandon as a result of the injuries he sustained in a crash yesterday. “I’m very sad,” Petacchi said. “It’s a real pity to have to abandon the race just when I was starting to feel my legs beginning to turn better and better." The Italian sprinter is also facing in to a potentially career-threatening doping investigation in his home country and had already voiced his concerns that each day he races may be his last.

Back at the head of affairs, the irrepressible David Moncoutié was engaged in the pursuit of King of the Mountains points, although he found himself locked in a fierce and entertaining battle with Gonzalo Rabunal. The Xacobeo Galicia man was riding in stout defence of his teammate Serafin Martinez’s lead in the competition and while he didn't manage to prevent Moncoutié from moving into the jersey in Alcoy tonight, he did limit the damage by out-jumping the Frenchman on the climbs of the Alto de Guadalest, the Alto de Confrides and the Alto de Todons.

Nonetheless, yesterday’s victor Moncoutié was again pleased with his day’s work: “I rode well for the mountains classification and that remains my main target for the Vuelta. In the end today I paid for the effort I made yesterday.”

The plucky Rabunal followed through with his effort atop the Todons 51km from the line and opened up a gap of almost two minutes over the remnants of the breakaway and a lead of eight minutes over the peloton. On the next climb of the Torremanzanas, Vanendert attacked behind in an effort to bring back Rabunal and his move sparked a flurry of counter attacks in the breakaway group and whittled it down to just nine riders.

An attacking finale

Rabunal's bold bid for glory was eventually quashed on the climb of the Benfalim and he was deposited out the back of the break on the next climb of the Revolcat, along with Pujol. Lopez made his first attack at this point, jumping clear13km from the line. He was soon joined by Moncoutié and the duo worked well together to open up a gap. Meanwhile, Kreuziger, Martinez and Caruso formed a chasing trio of their own meaning that Péraud, the red jersey on the road, was forced to plough a lone furrow in his doomed bid to take over the overall lead.

The five up front came back together near the top of the climb and after Caruso’s telegraphed attack was shut down by Moncoutie, Lopez made his move on the descent with 5km to go. He immediately opened a lead of 20 seconds over the chasers, who couldn't agree on whose responsibility it was to lead the pursuit. Lopez exploited that hesitation to perfection and his gap proved to be enough to seal the win as he grinded his way up the final drag to the line.

After the stage, Lopez picked out Caruso and Kreuziger as the men he had feared most in the break, and they were the men who proved the strongest of his pursuers. Caruso made one final bid to get across in the final kilometre but he over-estimated his strength on the slope and was passed by Kreuziger in the finishing straight. The Czech had the flagging Lopez in his sights but it was too little, too late as the Caisse d’Epargne man held on to take a fine victory with six seconds to spare.

Kreuziger confessed that he had erred in failing to track Lopez’s initial move. “I made a mistake in letting the last guy Lopez go,” he said. “But it was a very demanding stage, the heat made our day even more difficult.” For his part, Caruso was annoyed that his move was pegged back straight away and Lopez’s counter-attack was not. “I’m disappointed,” he admitted. “Moncoutié went after me when I attacked and then he didn’t react when Lopez went.”

A little over seven minutes later, the peloton swept into the finishing straight, where Nicolas Roche (AG2R) battled it out for 15th place with Joaquin Rodriguez and Igor Anton. It certainly didn’t escape the Spanish duo’s attention, however, that Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Doimo) was glued to their wheels, serenely surveying the scene, and the Italian looms menacingly in 3rd place overall as the race reaches its first rest day. “I believe in Nibali for the overall win,” Anton admitted. “He’s looking fresh.”