Vuelta a Espana: Lagutin wins atop Alto de la Camperona

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Sergey Lagutin gave Katusha its first stage win of this year's Vuelta a España, attacking at the top of the Alto de la Camperona to best breakaway companions Axel Domont (AG2R La Mondiale) and Perrig Quemeneur (Direct Energie) to the line.

Lagutin was incredulous at his victory, at age 35 finally taking a Grand Tour stage win.

"Finally the dream came true. I’ve been dreaming about it since I was little, to win a stage of a Grand Tour like the Vuelta, so when this happened I couldn’t believe that it happened to me," Lagutin said. "I’m 35 years old and at some point I thought that it was probably it but I still hoped that it was for me.

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"We don’t have our team leader (Joaquim Rodriguez) so we’re all free to do what we want and there are plenty of chances. We are still competitive and we’re looking forwards at this Vuelta."

The battle for the general classification went to Movistar on the stage, with Nairo Quintana putting in a blistering attack in the steep pitches near the end of the 8km climb to distance his rivals. A battered Alberto Contador (Tinkoff) put daylight between himself and Chris Froome (Sky) and Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) to gain back some of the time he lost earlier in the week.

Contador has a lot of ground to make up at 1:39 from Quintana in seventh. Valverde sits second overall at 19 seconds from his teammate, with Froome third at 27 seconds.

"I wanted to stay with a cool head to day and keep my emotions together," Contador said. "It was a day that you needed to keep a calm head. I wasn’t able to follow Quintana, we have a lot of work to do. We did a lot of work with the physio this morning, I felt better and my legs were a lot better than I expected. You feel the pain but sometimes on the second day you feel worse than the first after an accident. So, we’ll see tomorrow because we still have to work.

"I’m ok, it’s difficult to keep a positive attitude sometimes especially with all these questions but let’s see day by day."

How it unfolded

It was another scorcher in the Vuelta a España as the peloton headed off from Villapando for their 181.5km mostly flat trek through the baking Duero basin to the Alto de la Camperona.

Alberto Contador (Tinkoff), bandaged and banged up after the previous day's crash, took the start despite a sleepless night and hours of work to loosen up his stiff muscles.

It took 10km before a breakaway could be established, but finally 11 riders came together and began steadily distancing themselves from the red jersey group of Darwin Atapuma (BMC).

Zico Waeytens (Giant-Alpecin), Pieter Serry (Etixx-QuickStep), Axel Domont (AG2R La Mondiale), Sergey Lagutin and Jhonatan Restrepo (Katusha), Gatis Smukulis (Astana), Jacques Janse van Rensburg (Dimension Data), Mattia Cattaneo (Lampre-Merida), Loic Chetout (Cofidis), Scott Thwaits (Bora-Argon 18), and Perrig Quemeneur (Direct Energie) were the lucky riders to be given a large lead by the peloton.

With 50km to go the breakaway had almost 10 minutes on the peloton, but the best placed rider in the move, Domont was still no threat at 23:58 from Atapuma.

Waeytens was the first to break the cooperation in the escape group, attacking near the foot of the climb with 8km to go, but was chased down by Smukulis with Restrepo on his wheel.

Restrespo then kept powering on away from the others, leading by 20 seconds with 3km to go. But in the steep final 2km, Domont, Serry and Lagutin bridged back up and closed down the gap to Restrepo, finally making contact with 1600m to go and leaving him behind for good. Quemeneur managed to work his way up to the leaders in the final kilometer, while Serry lost contact and was joined by Cattaneo behind.

It was less a sprint than a grind for the stage win, Lagutin jumped first and Domont tried but could not get on terms with the Russian and lost 10 seconds in the final hundred meters. Quemeneur had to settle for third at 17 seconds.

"Today I felt good and to get into the breakaway was quite easy," Lagutin said. "We worked well all together, the sports directors on the radio gave me confidence and told me to wait until the final 500 metres. Everything just went perfectly.

"Jonny did an incredible job for me, he was fundamental. He attacked on the climb and I was able to sit in the wheel not working so I could save my legs for the final. I would say that more than 50 percent of this victory is thanks to Jonathan Restrepo.

"Honestly, with two kilometres to go when the French riders began attacking and I was able to follow them without giving everything, I had the confidence. Thanks to the sports directors Xavier Florencio he was telling me not to panic and save my legs. That’s what I did and we deserved that victory."

The peloton had a smooth ride into the base of the climb some 9 minutes behind the leaders, led by Movistar and Team Sky, but the action heated up on the steep section of the climb where Nairo Quintana (Movistar) put in a dig.

No one could match the diminutive Colombian, who opened up half a minute on the chasers by the finish line.

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