Igor climbs to big win

Igor showed what he's made of when he distanced big-name climbers Contador, Mosquera and Soler to claim the third stage of the Vuelta a Castilla y León yesterday. It was the team's third win in 9 days, so finally luck seems to be on the team's side after a luckless start to the season. It was a brilliant performance from, not only Igor, but from the whole team. Javier and Jorge both went on the attack and spent a lot of time up the road in breaks. Once both of them had been caught, the team set about driving the pace at the head of the peloton leading into the final climb, the Alto de Morredero. A leading quartet quickly formed containing Igor, Mosquera, Contador and Soler. Igor looked strong all the way and put in a powerful surge with 1,5 kilometres to go which not even the great Contador could find an answer to. Eventually Igor finished 13 seconds ahead of the trio and now leads the overall with the same margin. An important win for the young climber who was once touted as the next big thing in world cycling. Maybe this win is the sign of things to come from the diminutive escalador.

Naturally the other Euskaltel guys were exhausted after doing a phenomenal job all day long. Javier and Miguel Mínguez came in 15:10 down, while Jorge, Pablo and Jonathan all came in more than 25 minutes back.

Orbea put on quite a decent showing as well, attacking at will and being in the thick of the action. Ricardo García, Andoni Blázquez and Mikel Landa all jumped out of the peloton at various times to try and cause an upset. Obviously they didn't succeed, but they're really making their presence felt in the race. Landa eventually came in 27th, 5:31 down, Izagirre Jr. 40th, 10:46 down, Andoni Blázquez 62nd, 15:36 down, García 64th, 18:42 back, Mikel Ilundain, Adrián Sáez de Arregi, Xabier Zabalo and Beñat Urain 25:02 back.