Nairo Quintana is poised to win the Spanish Vuelta after protecting his lead over Chris Froome in a grueling penultimate stage in the southern mountains on Saturday. “Quintana with Movistar has a really good team around him and it’s going to be hard to beat him”.
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Three minutes and 18 seconds off the winning pace set by three-time Tour de France victor Chris Froome of Great Britain, the Nelson professional moved into 11th in the general classification and just 50 seconds off the next best rider with two stages remaining. “He is a great rival”, Quintana said.
Italian veteran Daniele Bennati (Tinkoff) and Germany stage seven victor Jonas Van Genechten (IAM Cycling) completed the top five, while Gianni Meersman – the Belgian sprinter who notched a brace in the opening week – could only manage eighth place despite some hard work from his Etixx-QuickStep team to reel in a five-man break which at one point held a seven-minute advantage over the pack. I gave it a go and it was awesome.
The triple Tour de France victor started the 37.5km stage seemingly out of the picture at 3min 37sec behind the race leader, Nairo Quintana, but he regained more than 2min to leave himself just 1min 21sec behind the Colombian.
“I think there were two races and it’s a real disappointment for Leo who I thought paced the climb fantastically well and just cut it a little bit short there at the end there”, he added.
After the first intermediate time check, located at 12.5 kilometres into the 37km course from Xabia to Calp, Froome posted the fastest time and clawed back 46 seconds on Quintana.
Quintana (Movistar) was unable to match Froome’s exceptional speed and had to settle for 10th position. “I am grateful to them”.
Spain’s Jonathan Castroviejo finished 44 seconds behind Froome and Tobias Ludvigsson of Sweden was third.
Another big gainer of the day was Three-time Vuelta victor Alberto Contador.
Cummings – second in the 2008 and 2011 editions – finished eighth.
Latour, who rides for AG2R La Mondiale, edged Darwin Atapuma at the line for his first win at a major race.
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Barring a final-day accident or incident Quintana will celebrate a second Grand Tour success, with a 104.8km route from Las Rozas to the capital to encounter before officially sealing a maiden Vuelta title on Sunday.
