Vuelta a España: Contador wins stage 16 on La Farrapona

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Tinkoff-Saxo's Alberto Contador extended his overall lead by winning the queen stage of the Vuelta a España, easily out-pacing top rival Chris Froome (Sky). The duo had attacked out of the group of favourites with five kilometers to go, and in the last kilometer Contador rode away from the Briton. Third on the day was Alessandro De Marchi (Cannondale), who had held the lead up most of the final climb.

The top three remained as before with Contador leading the race. Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) crossed the line fourth, at 55 seconds, but still retained his second place overall, at 1:36. Froome is third at 1:39 back.

With five kilometers to go, the race turned into a man-to-man showdown. Froome jumped from the favorites' group, with Contador right behind him. The Spaniard let his rival lead up the final kilometers before jumping away in the final kilometer.

The race was marred by an on-bike fistfight between Gianluca Brambilla (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) and Ivan Rovny (Tinkoff-Saxo), with the pair being removed from the race and disqualified. It was unclear what the original problem was, or who started it, but blows were definitely exchanged, and under the eyes of the commissaire.

How it unfolded

The queen stage, with five climbs - four of them category 1 – got off to a brisk start. Rohan Dennis (BMC) attacked in the first kilometer, and was soon joined by 12 others, including teammate Philippe Gilbert, Luis Leon Sanchez (Caja Rural), Stef Clement (Belkin), Peter Kennaugh (Sky) Adriano Malori (Movistar),and Ivan Rovny (Tinkoff-Saxo).

The group took a 33 second lead up the first climb of the day, the Alto de la Colladona. It was enough to splinter the group, leaving only Kennaugh, Rovny, Sanchez, Malori and Clement with a slight gap. Tinkoff-Saxo put up a blistering pace in the peloton, already dropping a number of riders off the back.

Near the top, the most high-powered possible attack formed, with the top three on general classification: Alberto Contador, Alejandro Valverde, and Chris Froome. The break up front had grown to 12 again, and crested the summit with 20 seconds over the Contador group.

Noticeably absent from the attacks was Joaquim Rodriguez, and his Katusha teammate reacted swiftly to bring the dangerous trio back.

Up front was Dennis, Ten Dam, Sánchez, Kennaugh, Rovny and Alessandro De Marchi (Cannondale), Romain Sicard (Europcar), Johan Le Bon (FDJ.fr), Wout Poels (Omega Pharma-QuickStep), Gianluca Brambilla (Omega Pharma-QuickStep), Damiano Cunego (Lampre-Merida) and Peio Bilbao (Caja Rural-RGA Seguros).

As they headed into the long valley before the second climb, the peloton evidently decided to let this group go, and the gap became nearly eight and a half minutes. Katusha continued to drive the peloton and had cut the lead to seven minutes by the time the day’s second climb, the category 2 Alto del Cordal started.

The gap continued to drop on the climb, and was down to 5:20 at the top. Dropped, and apparently bidding a final farewell to his GC chances, was Rigoberto Uran (Omega Pharma-QuickStep). The Colombian, who is said to be ill, made it back to the rear of the peloton on the descent, but things were not looking good for him, and he soon dropped back again.

Sanchez won the first two mountain rankings to take back the lead in that category.

No sooner was the second climb over than the third one started. The Alto de la Cobertoria was another cat. 1 climb, with a gradient of up to 16%. It was a long and grinding climb, which saw the gap continue to shrink.

Fabian Cancellara (Trek) stretched his legs in preparation for the upcoming World Championships, and attacked on the climb from the peloton. Sanchez again took the mountain points at the top, with Cancellara about 25 seconds ahead of the peloton, which was at 4:15.

There was a longer valley this time before the penultimate climb, the Puerto de San Lorenzo. Cancellara kept chugging away, about 3 minutes behind the lead group and 1:40 ahead of the peloton.

San Lorenzo was another category 1 climb, the third of the day, was a 10km climb with an average gradient of 8.5%. Cancellara was caught on the ascent, with Sky’s Christian Knees leading the field past him, only 2:48 behind the break group.

Brambilla and Rovny came to blows on the ascent, cause unknown. They both stayed on their bikes, but quite literally shoved and slugged. Unfortunately for them the commissaire’s car was quite close by, so they could expect to suffer consequences.

Shortly thereafter the break group fell apart, with finally De Marchi and Brambilla pulling away, soon joined by Poels, but only for a short spell.

Uran had struggled along more or less with the field, but with 3km still to go to the summit, he dropped back, and by the look on his face, he wouldn’t be coming back.

The favourites’ group numbered only about 25 riders as it hit the top, some 3 minutes down on the two leaders. Poels joined his teammate and De Marchi again on the descent.

Contador apparently changed his bike for the final ascent, a decision which nearly had serious consequences. On his way back up through the autos, he was nearly hit by a motorcycle along the barriers. Nothing happened, but it was unnecessarily close.

The leading trio took a gap of only two minutes with them as they started up La Farrapona to the summit finish. But it was soon only a duo. With 15 km to go, the race jury car moved up to the small group, and after a serious discussion and much handwaving, Brambilla was told that he was being disqualified and did not need to ride any further. Rovny was also disqualified, but was spared having his notification televised to an international audience.

Meanwhile, the race was continuing, and with 12km of climbing to go, the gap had fallen to 1:12. Shortly thereafter, De Marchi attacked and left Poels more or less standing still. Alone, he was able to build the gap up again slowly.

The chase group of favourites, still about 20 riders, kept steadily riding on. Contador had only one helper, having suffered the unexpected loss of Rovny, while Froome still had three teammates with him. Deignan had to drop off with a puncture, however.

Froome was the first to jump, with Contador hanging on. Valverde and Rodriguez, straggled behind, with Aru struggling to maintain contact. The move put an end to De Marchi’s hope, as he saw his lead drop from over a minute to nothing. The Italian tried to hang on to the two top favourites, who were about 30 seconds ahead of Rodriguez and Valverde.

Contador waited patiently behind Froome until nearly the final kilometer, when he attacked. Froome was unable to follow and the Spaniard easily pulled away, flying up the hill while Froome continued to stare down at his SRM.

Contador pulled his pistol act as he crossed the line, followed 14 seconds later by a disappointed Froome. De Marchi hung on for third place, followed seconds later by Valverde and Rodriguez.

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