Wednesday, September 08, 2010

Results and reactions to Vuelta stage 11

Igor's win was sublime, full stop. But so too was Mikel Nieve's ride. The super domestique once again battled it out with the best in the business on the slopes to Andorra's ski station to grab a notable 15th place at 53 seconds, coming in ahead of GT veterans LL Sánchez, Karpets and former leader Rodríguez, meaning the featherweight climber is now 18th overall. Amets Txurruka was also up there for a long time and hung on to grab 28th at just over two minutes. JJ Oroz was 43rd at 3:35, Martínez 53rd at 4:56, Verdugo 68th at 7:53, while Koldo, Urtasun and Intxausti once again rolled in with the gruppetto at 19:14. Igor is again the leader of the points rankings, while he's now also heading up the combi classification. Euskaltel remain third in the team rankings. Speaking after the stage, the affable maillot rojo had this to say: "It's great coming out of this stage win the win, the overall lead and the bonus seconds. I won't lie anymore: I'll fight for the overall win in this race. I'm not afraid of anyone, just a bad day. But it won't be a big deal if I don't win in Madrid. I'm already happy with how I've been doing. Today wasn't my best day though. I felt better at Valdepeñas de Jaén and at Xorret del Catí, but I measured my efforts and it worked out well eventually. The team is ready to defend the jersey".

2 comments:

arnout said...

Is this the day on which we have to change the "he could win the Vuelta" in "he should win the Vuelta"? I think so.

Brilliant. Just brilliant. It is such a long time ago a Basque Euskaltel rider could win in a GT in a mountainstage. This is so important for both Anton and the team, but also for Basque cycling.

He's living his own childhood dream.

azanca02 said...

This is really is a great day! Also a great year!!! I think this is the best year Euskaltel is having since like 2004...

I cant wait for the second to last day. I think he can win on any mountain top finish if it is not a day when the break goes away.

 

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