Beñat fails in Asturias defence

Beñat failed to hold on to his yellow leader's jersey in today's summit-finish stage in the Vuelta a Asturias. Euskaltel, not too wisely I think, spent all their forces and support riders in chasing down a big 15-man break that broke clear early on. In the break, to his credit, was the ever-aggressive Jorge Azanza. Euskaltel managed to reel in the break, but all riders except for Beñat were naturally spent and left him totally alone on the last climb. I like the fact that the team put in a concerted effort to chase down the break. Naturally. But how wise was it to use that amount of energy to chase down a rather non-dangerous looking break instead of keeping some forces left for the final and deciding climb? Not wise in my opinion. Colombian due Duarte and Cano jumped out of the lead group on the last climb to win by a big margin and take the leader's jersey off of Beñat, who still did quite well to grab third on the day beating riders like Mosquera and Vicioso in the process. He now trails Duarte by 19 seconds going into tomorrow's concluding hilly stage, and has by all probability lost the race overall. Not good. Not good at all by a Pro Tour team like Euskaltel in a lower-ranked race like the Vuelta a Asturias. Obviously the guys did all they could, that was obvious for all to see as they chased down the break, and in the end that's all you can demand, to give it your all. But still you have to demand a certain level of performance. A race-leader from a Pro Tour team shouldn't be left exposed on the last climb in a race like this. Stage results:

• 3rd, Beñat Intxausti, 1:10
• 35th, Jorge Azanza, 6:29
• 40th, Romain Sicard, 6:49
• 87th, Javier Aramendía, 23:15
• 89th, Gorka Izagirre, 24:14
• 90th, Jonathan Castroviejo, s.t.
• 91st, Miguel Minguez, s.t.