VaE: Rodriguez wins again and takes the red jersey

Joaquim Rodriguez demolished the field on the San Lorenzo de el Escorial, putting himself in to the leader’s jersey on Stage 8.

Rodriguez was the only one who looked even remotely comfortable, on a climb which went up to 23%. Michele Scarponi knew there was nothing he could do to stop the Spaniard and concentrated on keeping himself ahead of the other big contenders. He now sits 32 seconds ahead of his teammate Daniel Moreno, in the GC.

Igor Anton showed that he is on his way back to form, by crossing the line with the lead group. Also in the front group were Jurgen Van Den Broeck and cousins Nicolas Roche and Dan Martin. Sylvain Chavanel, who started the day in the red jersey, lost just over a minute to Rodriguez and slides down the standings, but stays in the top ten. Bradley Wiggins lost a further 25 seconds to Rodriguez, while Vincenzo Nibali struggled and lost 32 seconds.

VaE: Rodriguez doubles up for Katusha on Stage 5

Joaquin Rodriguez doubled Katusha’s stage tally, after a solid performance from his team, as took victory in Valdepeñas de Jaén.

Katusha controlled the final kilometres of the stage and used, yesterday’s winner, Daniel Moreno to launch Rodriquez to the line. The Spaniard has come in to the Vuelta with good form, after winning the Vuelta a Burgos. Moreno’s performance has moved him in to within nine seconds of the overall lead, with Rodriguez 14 second behind him.

Wout Poels was the man who separated the two on the stage, a late surge from him fell just short of the victory. Michele Scarponi and Nicolas Roche have helped their GC contentions, both finishing just 11 seconds down on the winner. Last year’s winner Vincenzo Nibali crossed the line 4 seconds later and sits 5^th in the GC. He will take some beating, if anyone wants to take the Vuelta crown away from him.

La Vuelta - Week Three Round-Up

Stage 15 saw the Spaniard Carlos Barredo finally break his grand tour duck with a win on the summit of Lagos de Covadonga in horrible conditions. The Quick Step rider became known for his fruitless attacks during the Tour de France this year. He finally reaped the rewards and finished over a minute ahead of second place man Nico Sijmens. He announced later that he is going to leave the Belgian team and join Rabobank next season.

Two days after losing race leader Igor Anton in a huge crash Euskaltel were on top again when Mikel Nieve left his companions on the ascent of the Cotobello. Pre-tour favourite Fränk Schleck finally showed his form after breaking his collarbone on stage three of the Tour de France. The Luxembourg road champion hadn’t made much of an impression, but chased Nieve in to second place.

The big news of the day, however, was Joaquin Rodriguez taking back the red jersey from Vincenzo Nibali after the Liquigas rider cracked and lost over 30 seconds on the final climb.

Time Trial Surprise
After the rest day came the time trial and Peter Vilets sprung the surprise of the tour after he beat Denis Menchov and Fabian Cancellara. The HTC Columbia rider put on a stunning performance and took advantage of a tail wind towards the end of the course to outclass the rest of the field.

VaE: Philip Gilbert takes his second victory in La Vuelta while Vincenzo Nibali hold on to Red

Philip Gilbert took his second victory in this year’s la Vuelta a Espana after a huge sprint in to the town of Toledo.

With just over 3km to go several riders launched an attack including Luis Leon Sanchez. They managed to pull out a small gap of around five seconds, but they were caught 1km later. The attacks broke up the peloton leaving the sprinters behind.

This allowed the explosive Belgian to start a 500 metre sprint to the line, but he was almost caught by Tyler Farrar who had survived the earlier escape attempts. Vincenzo Nibali managed to come in not too far behind the Belgian to keep a 50’ gap ahead of Ezequiel Mosquera.

Today’s stage was the longest of this year’s Vuelta and a mixture of terrain and the riders legs were tested immediately with a second category climb. The rest of the stage was very undulating, but gradually moved down and a slight incline in the last kilometre.

A break away was formed after the first and only classified climb of the day. It was Dominik Roels, who was in the break yesterday and Josep Jufre who came of the front of the bunch first. They were soon joined by Manuel Ortega and Xavier Florencio; the four men managed to pull out a massive gap very quickly.

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.