Arrieta takes lackluster stage as Vino' holds lead
Friday’s long and slow 19th stage across the flats Castilla y La Mancha seemed tedious after three gripping days in the mountains of southern Spain.
The 205.3km trudge from Jaén to Ciudad Real – the third longest of this year’s Vuelta a España – produced a seven-man breakaway and a winner in José Luis Arrieta (Ag2r) to give the Spanish journalists something to write about. Otherwise, the Vuelta was on a holding pattern.
"I have been waiting for this moment for 14 years," said the 35-year-old after scoring just his second professional victory. "I knew there was a headwind at the finish, I wanted to try to save myself and I put it in the small gear and ramped up my sprint with 200m and I had a bit of luck as well."
The breakaway opened up a gap of more than 12 minutes as the main pack slipped into siesta mode. Alexandre Vinokourov (Astana) retained the overall leader’s jersey in a one-day truce ahead of Saturday’s time trial.
While the riders seemed in no hurry to ride during the five and a half hour march, everyone upped the pace at the finish line to pack their bags for the 200km transfer up to Madrid for the Vuelta’s final weekend.
No one seemed thrilled about Friday’s long stage, viewed by most as too long and mostly unnecessary this late in the race. Chris Horner (Davitamon-Lotto) summed up the mood of the peloton.
"I don’t think anybody liked the stage. It was just windy enough that you couldn’t find a place to hide out," Horner said. "We had a hour transfer after yesterday’s stage to get to the hotel, just to turn around and have an hour right back to the same place. And now we have a 200km transfer to Madrid and then they put in a 200km stage and 10km of neutral section just to let a group go so we could all ride tempo. What’s the point?"
Maybe no one told Horner that Saturday’s time trial starts at 11 a.m.
Slow crawl across the plain
The incredible shrinking peloton was down to 132 starters in Jaén, a city famous for its olive oil and Manuel Beltrán, riding in his last Vuelta with Discovery Channel before joining Liquigas next season.
With the Vuelta’s third-longest stage on tap and the bunch weary from three exciting stages in the sun-baked mountains of southern Spain, it didn’t seem like anyone was in a hurry to suffer.
A hilly profile in the opening two-thirds of the stage presented a perfect platform for a breakaway. Several riders were keen to try, but it wasn’t until about 40km into the festivities that a move stuck.
In the move were: Lars Bak (CSC), Vladimir Gusev (Discovery Channel), Dmitriy Fofonov (Credit Agricole), José Luis Arrieta (Ag2r), Aketza Peña (Euskaltel), David Loosli (Lampre), Pieter Mertens (Davitamon-Lotto) and José Vicente Garcia Acosta (Caisse d’Epargne).
With the big teams represented, especially Discovery Channel out to defend its hold on the team GC, Astana was content to let the non-threatening bunch take the initiative.
The gap grew and grew and grew to more than 11 minutes with 80km to go when Astana ramped it up a little bit.
Team CSC threw the hammer down with about 25km to go against some heavy crosswinds just to see if they could cause a split in the peloton, but none of the big favorites got caught out of position.
"That’s the way we race," said Team CSC manager Bjarne Riis. "No one wanted to race, but the Vuelta doesn’t end until Sunday."
The 61st Vuelta continues Saturday with the 27.5km individual time trial on the outskirts of Madrid. Most of the drama is taken out of the stage because the gaps between the podium riders seem too far to cause any changes. David Millar (Saunier Duval-Prodir) will start as the favorite, but even he admits he’s already thinking about the world championships next week.
Horner, for one, says he has something to ride for. He’s 20th overall – 1:55 ahead of Bak – who bounced into 21st thanks to being in the breakaway.
"I guess I will protect my 20th place," he said. "Today was fast enough if that one guy in the break (Bak) got like 15 minutes, he was going to pop over me. They got up to 12, but CSC tried to split the group and it brought it down to 10, so I guess I’m going to keep 20th in GC after all."
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Top 10
1. José Luis Arrieta (Sp), Ag2r Prevoyance, 5:30:14
2. Dmitriy Fofonov (Kaz), Credit Agricole, same time
3. David Loosli (Swi), Lampre, at 0:02
4. Lars Ytting Bak (Dk), CSC, at 0:09
5. Vladimir Gusev (Rus), Discovery Channel, at 0:30
6. Pieter Mertens (B), Davitamon-Lotto, same time
7. José Vicent Garcia Acosta (Sp), Caisse d'Epargne-I.B., s.t.
8. Aketza Peña (Sp), Euskaltel-Euskadi, s.t.
9. Aurélien Clerc (Swi), Phonak, at 11:16
10. Thor Hushovd (Nor), Credit Agricole, at 11:16
Overall
1. Alexandre Vinokourov (Kaz), Astana, 77:08:38
2. Alejandro Valverde (Sp), Caisse d'Epargne-I.B., at 0:53
3. Andrey Kashechkin (Kaz), Astana, at 2:06
4. Carlos Sastre (Sp), CSC, at 2:51
5. J. Angel Gomez Marchante (Sp), Saunier Duval, at 5:06
6. Thomas Danielson (USA), Discovery Channel, at 7:05
7. Samuel Sánchez (Sp), Euskaltel-Euskadi, at 8:23
8. Manuel Beltran (Sp), Discovery Channel, at 8:28
9. Luis Pérez (Sp), Cofidis, at 10:04
10. Vladimir Karpets (Rus), Caisse d'Epargne-I.B., at 10:06
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