A young long shot survived
to take the win in the first Pyrenean mountain stage today. We saw another stage
winner come from the early breakaway on stage 14. Terrible weather had a big
impact on the race, causing problems for many riders.
Here is my [rough] stage-14
report if you want to read a brief outline of how the race unfolded. Afterwards
you’ll find some comments and my pick for tomorrow:
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| Stage 14 profile |
Stage 14
Baga to Andorra, 155.7k
First day of bad weather
Rain, cold (Temps mid 40’s; beow
40f/5c at Envalira summit)
No TV images for first couple of hours due to cloud
cover.
*Early Break went at km3: LL Sanchez, Gilbert, Ratto, Chainel, and Brown.
Lead is up to 11:25
The leaders are on the HC Envalira
climb:
The HC climb is 26.7k long
Brown has been there to help
Sanchez;
Brown and Chainel are quickly dropped on the
climb
Break lead: 12:30
*The peloton top the Cima
Coppi Alberto Fernandez, Port de Envalira HC climb at 2415m, 8:30 behind the
leaders.
Nuyens, Poels and Westra have abandoned
*Basso
suffering in the cold
*LL Sanchez wiped out on the
descent, but is back up and riding.
*Onto the cat-2 Col de
Ordino:
Ratto has
pulled away into the lone lead;
Gilbert at +:25
-44.7k: Ratto leads peloton
by 7:40
six riders escape the
peloton: Jose Herrada (Movistar),
Vasil Kiryienka (Team Sky), Vladimir
Gusev (Katusha), Imanol Erviti (Movistar) and Luca Paolini (Katusha);
LLS has
abandoned after crashing; cites hypothermia.
Ratto still leads Gilbert as
he starts the descent of the Ordino;
Front peloton down to 30 riders
Pinot is with Anton,
Urtasun, Egoi, Flecha, Arroyo, Herrada, Txurruka and Howes about 1:00 ahead of the
GC peloton.
Still pouring rain.
*Ratto now has 2:00 on
Gilbert. He is holding 9:00 on the peloton as he summits the penultimate climb
(cat-2 Comella);
*Basso
abandoned! Suffered in the cold descent of the HC Envalira.
Valverde
is :45 behind the GC group. He has 2 teammates with him. He fell behind on the
Ordino descent.
The GC group is on the
Comella climb.
Ratto is on the final climb
to the finish, the cat-1 Collada de la Gallina.
The GC group summits the
Comella climb 8:39 behind Ratto, who is on his way to the biggest win of his
young career. Gilbert is still somewhere between the leader and the chasing
group.
-5k for Ratto. The Cannondale rider leads by 8:53.
 |
| Final climb profile of stage 14 |
The peloton is on the final
climb.
Valverde is being led now by
Herrada, working to catch up, but Nibali, Horner, Purito and a few others up
ahead are following a hard pace being set by Horner’s super domestique today,
Robert Kiserlovski.
*Roche is not here.
Valverde leaves his teammate
Herrada and continues ahead alone, chasing after the Nibali/Horner/Purito
group.
-2.5k: Valverde passes
several of the riders who were once in the GC group, which is now down to nine
riders: Kiserlovski, Nibali, Horner,
Rodriguez, Pozzovivo, Pinot, Sammy Sanchez, Arroyo and Kiryienka. So, Horner is the only one with a teammate still with
him.
Ahead, Ratto is on the very
narrow road near the top.
Valverde
is within :15 of the GC group now!
 |
| Kiserlovski, L, pulls off as Horner, takes over (Nibali, center) |
*-2k for Ratto: Kiserlovski pulls Nibali and Horner away
from the rest.
Horner
takes over, and Nibali rides his
wheel up the final few kms toward the summit.
Ratto looks to his right at
the clouds below him, shrouding the valley somewhere below.
*23 year-old Daniele Ratto of
Cannondale wins stage 14 after almost four and-a-half hours in the cold wind
and rain!
The Italian sprinter’s
performance today also nets him the polka dot climbers jersey.
Valverde is closing in on
Pinot and Pozzovivo as Horner continues to do all the work leading Nibali uphill
in a race for the second place time bonus.
About :20 ahead of Pinot and
Pozzo, Purito and Sammy Sanchez trail Nibali and Horner by just :20.
Nibali
pulls ahead of Horner in the final 150
hundred meters, and takes second place and the 6-second time bonus.
Horner crosses the line 2
seconds later, in third, and takes the :04 bonus.
Purito Rodriguez is next, in
fourth place in his home stage, 18 seconds behind Nibali. He will take over
fourth place in the General Classification standings.
Sammy Sanchez finishes
fifth, at +4:19, but just :26 behind Nibali. He will climb three spots in the
GC, from 14th to 11th overall. Remember I singled him out
as one of a select few who had not had a stage where they slid back in the
standings at all? He is still at it, continually advancing.
Alejandro Valverde manages
to limit his losses somewhat, finishing sixth, but the damage has been done as
he lost :50 to Nibali at the line. Add in the :06 time bonus, and that’s almost
a minute lost by Valverde to the race leader, Nibali today. Valverde’s chance
for overall victory is possibly out the window.
The Spanish Movistar leader
did however take over the lead in the points jersey competition.
Thibaut Pinot managed to
overcome the threatening descents, and finishes seventh, losing :59 to Nibali.
He takes over the seventh place spot vacated by Ivan Basso, who had to retire
from the race today.
Domenico Pozzovivo finished
with Pinot. The Ag2R climber gets eighth place. Pinot and Pozzo each advance
one spot in the GC.
 |
| Nico Roche suffered on stage 14 |
Nicolas Roche of
Saxo-Tinkoff lost three and-a-half minutes to Nibali in the cold and wet today.
He drops out of a podium position, from second place overall, to sixth.
Team Netapp’s Leopold Konig
managed a tenth place finish today. He moves into the top ten overall,
advancing from 11th to eighth place.
Mikel Landa impressed as Team
Euskaltel’s second highest finisher on stage 14, and their second rider in the
top ten—he was also one of four Euskaltel riders to net a top-20 finish today
(Nieve 11th; Anton 17th).
Nibali extends his lead over
everyone (except Ratto, who is not even close to a GC threat), and keeps his
red jersey for the overall race lead, with his flawless ride in today’s awful
weather.
Horner will climb back up
from fourth place overall, to second. It was only coming into this weekend’s
Pyrenees stages that Nibali stated in the press that Horner is as big a threat
as anyone.
Valverde may have lost a
minute, and his chance for overall victory, but he still has a very good shot
at a podium finish. He also has a 1:15 lead over fourth place Purito, and 2:01
over fifth place Pozzovivo.
Stage 14 was a race of
attrition. The cold and wet conditions caused a lot of suffering, and forced
some key players out of the race. Most importantly though, with five more
summit finishes to come, the Vuelta a España is far from decided.
Another 14 riders were
unable to finish today, including Ivan Basso, Luis Leon Sanchez, Wout Poels,
and Roman Kreuziger.
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| Young Daniele Ratto was somewhat pleased to win stage 14 |
Stage 14 Brief Results:
GC standings after stage 14:
You can see my early preview for Sunday’s stage 15 to the Peyragudes in my Pyrenees post from Thursday.
No one could have predicted
that Daniele Ratto would win stage 14, but he got into the early break and
showed tremendous strength and durability in bad conditions to snatch a
stunning win.
Chris Horner fought hard
enough to gain some time on most of his rivals today, and finished just two
seconds behind Vincenzo Nibali—who looks to be the strongest rider in the race
right now; so even though I picked him for the win, I am still impressed with
his performance. [Is it obvious that I have been rooting for him?]
35 riders have dropped out
of the race so far—23 of them over the last two stages. Stage 14 today saw the
most casualties, many treated for Hypothermia. The weather on Sunday’s big 15th
stage may not be too different. Those who recover best from today’s hellish ride
will have the advantage tomorrow.
My pick for stage 15 is Vincenzo
Nibali.
The Sicilian “Shark of
Messina” can be content to just follow wheels, marking Horner all the way, but
at some point he may want to stamp his authority on the race with a big stage
win. The queen stage on Sunday would be a good place to do that.
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