VaE: Peter Vilets takes surprise win as Rodriguez loses the red jersey again in Stage 17

Peter Velits took a surprising victory in today’s 45km time-trial in Peñafiel beating Denis Menchov as Joaquin Rodriguez lost his red jersey after a terrible day on the bike

Velits rode himself up the classification overtaking Nicolas Roche, Frank Schleck and Rodriguez to put him in a podium position with less than a week to go. The HTC Columbia man had been sixth place, but was able to take advantage of tail winds towards the end of the course to boost his time.

Rodriguez has a Bad Day
Rodriguez struggled to keep the speed up and lost over four minutes on his closest rivals tumbling down the timings. The Spaniard held a lead of 33 seconds ahead of Vincenzo Nibali at the start of the day, but he now lays down in 5th 3’45 down on the Italian.

Nibali had his own heart stopping moment when he got a puncture on his front wheel. The Liquigas rider went for the spare bike as his mechanic went to put a new wheel on his bike. After a brief moment of confusion he was back on his bike, but he lost around 20 seconds in the change.

Menchov went someway to salvaging his 2010 tour; the Russian has won this tour twice in 2005 and 2007 but he has failed to impress so far and was lying 42nd over an hour behind the leader Joaquin Rodriguez. Menchov put in a brilliant ride to beat Swiss World Champion Cancellara by 25 seconds.



The Rabobank rider didn’t look like he was going to post a good time not making it to the top five at the first two intermeadiate check points. He went on to make up over a minute in the final section of the course.

Cancellara Dissapointment
Cancellara will be disappointed with himself as he has been almost unbeatable time-trials this year and would have been hoping to win this one going with the World Championships less than three weeks away. The course was a completely flat ramble through northern Spain’s countryside and looked to be perfect for the Swiss man, but the tough days in the mountains seem to have taken their toll.

Elsewhere in the classification Xacobeo Galicia rider David Garcia started off the day in 10th place. A problem with his front tri-spoke wheel just meters from the starting ramp lost him dropped him in to 11th over a minute behind Luis Leon Sanchez.

Another person having a bad day was Nicolas Roche; the Irishman was in 5th place just behind Frank Schleck. A tough stage for him and he is now sitting down in 8th only 10 second ahead of 2008 Tour de France winner Carlos Sastre.

Tomorrow’s stage goes 148,9 km from Valladolid to Salamanca and will be a day for the sprinters..