It was another win to Warren Barguil last night. The way he used the-man-with-the-last-name-so-good-you-say-it-twice, Rigoberto Uran Uran, was amazing for one so young. I didn’t know he climbed so well either!
Back in the GC El Tiburon (Nibali, “The Shark”) finally cracked after three days’ hard racing in the Pyrenees, though only lost 22 seconds to Horner in second place. Still there is still a fair amount of climbing left including the feared Angliru. You can lose 30 seconds there and not even realise it. The fight for the Red has come back alive!
The stage winner
Well really, to expect anyone to pick Barguil again was a long shot, though a fair few people were on Rigoberto in second place.
Betancur was the major Egg of the Day, given you expect the bloke to actually to climb pretty well. His form was left in Italy months ago and the shell of a rider at the Vuelta would rather put his feet up for 2013. He contributed to 17 minutes lost and five tippers’ hopes torpedoed.
The leaders
There was no real movement in the top 10 last night and no movement at all in the top five. Chris Seglenieke takes a more-than-a-minute lead into the second rest day and is sitting pretty in Red.
Top ten
- Chris Seglenieke
- Olly Harris
- Brad Stephens
- Jackson Ankers
- Scott Weston
- James Colasante
- Erin Tanner
- Matt Mcloone
- Tom Wakeling
- Jeremy Smith
In the Sprint competition there was no change from the last stage so it is still ZUPER tight, with Brad Stephens holding a point margin over Scott Weston in second. In the KOM Michael Henley still leads on 28 points though Ter Culloty is now closing in on 26 points.
Looking forward
Today is the last rest day of this Vuelta before closing out with, yes, more climbing! But there’s some brief respite in the form of a 189km stage to Burgos tomorrow. The stage does climb up over the course of the stage but compared to the stages that have passed, this is as flat as a pancake. This is one of the final rolls of the dice for the rouleurs and potentially the sprinters.