From Plan A to Plan B. With the stage 2 win and the overall race lead in the bag for Wout Poels, Team Sky will now be looking to the Dutchman, not Chris Froome, to net them a second victory in three years at Spain's Ruta del Sol.
As chance would have it, the transfer of power from Froome to Poels took place on the same climb, the Alto de Allanadas, where the Briton took a definitive lead in the Ruta del Sol three years ago. This time, as Froome struggled on the brutally difficult upper slopes, the 30-year-old Poels claimed his first win since the Tour de Pologne's final stage last year, blasting away twice in the closing kilometre.
After the stage, the new race leader Poels said, "We played two cards, with Chris and with me. So I could do my own thing the whole day and then I could finish it off."
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Froome's participation in the race has proved controversial in some quarters. He was notified on September 20, 2017, that a urine sample taken from him on stage 18 of the Vuelta a España exceeded the allowed limit of the asthma drug salbutamol. He contends he did not exceed the WADA-allowed dosage of the medication, saying that his asthma worsened during the race, and he followed his team doctor's recommendation to increase his dose.
While his case was still being reviewed by the UCI, Froome started the Ruta del Sol on Wednesday, as allowed under UCI rules, which do not require a provisional suspension in cases of 'specified substances' like salbutamol.
Poels recognised that there was considerably heightened media interest in the race.
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
via Cyclingnews Latest News http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/poels-powers-into-overall-lead-at-ruta-del-sol
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