Vuelta a España leader Nairo Quintana (Movistar) overcame the Mas de la Costa climb on stage 17 without any difficulty on Wednesday. It was the first of the three big remaining obstacles en route to the overall victory. After Thursday's 191km transitional stage, he still faces a daunting 39km time trial, and another summit finale before the parade in Madrid on Sunday.
Quintana recognised that his chances of not losing time to second-placed Chris Froome (Sky) on Friday's time trial are low, and that he would, he said, be able to strike back on Saturday's final ascent to the Alto de Aitana.
The stalemate between the Vuelta GC's 'Big Four' that materialized in the four kilometre ascent of Mas de la Costa today represented another step towards Quintana claiming his second Grand Tour in three years.
ADVERTISEMENT
Much of the foundations of that slatemate on stage 17's mountainous leg of the Vuelta were laid before the TV broadcasts kicked in, with Quintana having to defend his lead against multiple early attacks by rival teams.
"It was a very hard start, with lots of different breaks going and I had to get in all of them until I was sure that one had gone that didn't affect me overall," Quintana explained. "Then in the last climb" - when the next real challenges against his lead began to appear - "all I had to do was watch my rivals and defend myself."
"[Alberto] Contador (Tinkoff) attacked, [Esteban] Chaves (Orica-BikeExchange) went for it, and they've got a big fight going on for the podium. I was keeping an eye on Froome, and I got through the day."
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
via Cyclingnews Latest News http://ift.tt/2cEUim7
No comments:
Post a Comment