Chris Froome (Team Sky) went all out on the final climb to Peña Cabarga to win the seventeenth stage of the Vuelta a España and try to take the race. The Kenyan-born Briton managed to distance race leader Juan José Cobo (Geox-TMC) on the steepest part of the final kilometre of the climb, but the Spanish rider caught up again in the closing metres. Cobo took the lead but Froome kicked one last time to win the stage, and open a one second lead over the Geox-TMC rider.
Froome gets a twenty second time bonus on the line, but Cobo was also given twelve for second place, meaning that with the one-second gap, the Team Sky rider has only closed the 22-second gap between them in the overall classification by nine. Cobo therefore still holds the race lead by an even slimmer thirteen-second margin.
"That was one of the hardest days on the bicycle in my life," said Froome at the finish. "It was the last mountain-top finish so we came in here trying to do as much as we could - but Cobo was extremely strong again and is still holding the red jersey.
"The whole team have been fantastic throughout this race," he added. "They've done absolutely everything for me and Bradley."
Although Froome has cut his deficit to Cobo to just thirteen seconds, with just four stages to go, and all of the summit finishes of the race now over, Froome has few more chances to take further time out of Cobo’s lead.
"The hardest stages are now over," he conceded, "but we'll still go out there in the final four days of the race and look to make it hard for Cobo."
Behind the two leaders the chasing group, which had been distanced in the final kilometre, was led over the line 21-seconds later by Bauke Mollema (Rabobank), who was attacking to take the third place on the podium from Froome’s Sky teammate Bradley Wiggins. The following riders trickled over the line behind the Dutchman, but the British champion came over after 39 seconds, losing just 18 to Mollema and holding onto third.
The stage was punctuated by a number of breakaway groups, but none was able to establish a big enough advantage to stay away for very long thanks to several teams lifting the pace of the peloton. The big attack came on the final climb from Daniel Martin (Garmin-Cervélo), who was joined by Marzio Bruseghin (Movistar), Chris Anker Sørensen (Saxo Bank-SunGard) and Jurgen Van Den Broeck (Omega Pharma-Lotto). The four riders were caught when the overall leaders began to lift their pace, only for Cobo and Froome to jump clear.
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One last chance to take time on the mountaintops
The 211km between Faustino V and Peña Cabarga was to be the last mountaintop finish of the race. Although the final climb was just 6.1km long, the final two kilometres were to be particularly tough, with sections of up to 19%. Chris Froome (Team Sky) would start the day just 22 seconds behind race leader Juan José Cobo (Geox-TMC), and the finish represented probably the last clear opportunity for him to make up that time.
“Today is the last stage for trying to win the Vuelta,” Froome said at the start. “I wouldn’t like to be in Cobo’s position today because he’ll be attacked by many riders.
“There’s no reason why I wouldn’t go for it.”
On what was the longest stage of the race, the peloton would have to tackle the 3rd category Portillo de Bustos after 81.6km and the 2nd category Portillo de Lunada after 162.3km, on the way to the steep final climb to the finish.
Ordinarily the big favourite for the stage would be Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha), who won here in the 2010 race. The Catalan came down heavily on the previous stage though, hurting his back and arm; he started the race with his left wrist heavily strapped, but that wasn’t his main problem.
“My wrist is all right”, he said on the start line. “I’ve slept well but I’m more worried about my back; it really hurts.
“Yesterday, when I got back on my bike, my left leg was very painful. I treated it with ice last night, so I hope to be okay today but I’ve got some doubts.
Riders try to break away but nobody can snap the elastic
With a very fast start to the stage it wasn’t until the 37th kilometre that a break managed to get away from the peloton. In the group of 21 riders there were the usual Cofidis and Andalucia-Caja Granada riders in the shape of Alekseis Saramotins and the previous day’s most aggressive rider Jesus Rosendo. The other prominent rider in the group was previous mountains jersey wearer Matteo Montaguti (AG2R La Mondiale), who took the points over the 3rd category Portillo de Bustos to close the gap on jersey incumbent David Moncoutié (Cofidis).
The Katusha team put itself on the front of the peloton on the flatter section following the descent, and succeeded in splitting the peloton into two. The biggest name to be caught behind the split was tenth place overall Wouter Poels (Vacansoleil-DCM), whose team was working frantically to get him back to the front.
The first peloton caught the large breakaway group after 108km, with Poels’ group still over a minute behind. Ten kilometres later a new group made it clear, made up of Greg Van Avermaet (BMC Racing), Olivier Kaisen (Omega Pharma-Lotto), Guillaume Bonnafond (AG2R La Mondiale), Johannes Fröhlinger (Skil-Shimano), Evgeny Petrov (Astana) and Sylvain Chavanel (Quick Step).
With 80km to go the group of six had opened up a lead of 2’50” but, once Vacansoleil-DCM had brought Poels forward, the Dutch team moved up and lift the pace.
With 67km to go, and with the sextet’s lead down to a minute, Chavanel was dropped by the leaders and drifted back to the peloton. At that same moment Kaisen jumped away and got a few seconds clear but the five remaining escapees were together again after just a few kilometres.
As the climb to the Portillo de Lunada began Marzio Bruseghin (Movistar) and Mathias Frank (BMC Racing) went clear, and David Moncoutié (Cofidis) jumped across. The three of them joined the breakaway group to make eight up front.
Bonnafond outsprinted Moncoutié for the big points on the top of the climb to deny the French rider on behalf of his AG2R La Mondiale teammate Matteo Montaguti, who was second in the standings
Geox-TMC led peloton over the top just 39 seconds behind, and the Spanish team lifted the pace on the front of the peloton and reeled the leaders in with 36km to go.
With the break caught it was the turn of Andrey Kashechkin (Astana) and Pablo Lastras (Movistar) to try to escape, but with Geox-TMC setting such a fierce pace at the front of the peloton, they too were caught inside 29km to go. Katusha then came to the front once more and kept the pace high.
With just over 16km to go Van Avermaet had another attempt to escape but, once again, the pace was too high for the Belgian to get far and he was soon caught.
Approaching the final climb the strong teams take control
Inside the final 15km Garmin-Cervélo came to the front with Andreas Klier, but just a kilometre later Katusha took over again. Rodriguez was apparently confident, despite his injuries, although the team also had Sierra Nevada winner Daniel Moreno to ride for.
The intermediate sprint in Solares with 10.8km to go was calmly taken by Luca Paolini (Katusha) as he led the peloton. David De La Fuente (Geox-TMC) took the third place over the line, but there was no need for him to police the sprint as none of Cobo’s rivals was to contest it this time.
Tom Slagter (Rabobank) took hold of the front of the peloton as the climb to Peña Cabarga began, with Geox-TMC and Katusha in force right behind him. After just a few hundred metres of the climb the Dutchman attacked, managing to get a few seconds clear. Amets Txurruka (Euskaltel-Euskaid) chased across, but the peloton was right behind him and the race was all together once more.
Daniel Martin goes for a second stage win
Just as he reached the five kilometres to go banner Martin put in his move and Txurruka went with him. As the two climbers began to inch Sørensen began to give chase, but he was making slow progress as Martin accelerated again and dropped Txurruka.
Behind the Irishman Denis Menchov (Geox-TMC) was leading the main group of around twenty riders, and calmly pulling back Txurruka; all of the favourites were still present, including Rodriguez.
With 4km to go Martin had a lead of ten seconds over Sørensen and another move from Bruseghin but the peloton was only a few seconds behind. Wiggins and Froome sitting right on the wheel of Cobo, watching the local rider, apparently waiting for a move.
Brusesghin powered on and closed in on Martin, while Sørensen was drifting back. The Italian tried to attack the Garmin-Cervélo rider, but he was right on his wheel, and followed him under the three kilometre banner. They were 14 seconds clear of the Menchov-led group, with Sørensen stuck in between.
Sørensen finally made it up to Bruseghin and Martin, just as Van Den Broeck accelerated away from the front of the peloton. Cobo was happy to see the Belgian go since he was of no danger in the overall classification and a successful breakaway would keep the stage winner’s time bonuses away from those who where.
Despite the lack of a reaction from the race leaders team, Rodriguez and Poels were drifting to the back of the line and, as the group entered the steeper final two kilometres, Rodriguez found himself dropped.
The attacks continue but only the top two have the legs to make it
As the road steepened up ahead Van Den Broeck attacked over the top of the three leaders and they were unable to react. With just a kilometre and a half to go the peloton caught Bruseghin, Martin and Sørensen and, with Mikel Nieve (Euskaltel-Euskadi) leading, it caught up with Van Den Broeck.
With everybody together once more the pace slowed as the favourites looked at one another. With all of his teammates gone from the front, Cobo took over himself, and was content to see Van Den Broeck try to go again.
It was Nieve that brought the Belgian back again but, just as they passed under the flamme rouge with one kilometre to go, Cobo launched his attack and only Froome could go with him.
At this point, any hopes Wiggins had of taking the race lead back himself ended as the British was dropped by the group.
Froome followed in Cobo’s wheel as they passed through the narrow corridor between the Spanish fans, but then suddenly leapt out of the saddle and attacked. Cobo managed to hold onto the Sky rider’s back wheel for little more than a hundred metres, him but then cracked and Froome rode away.
The British rider was sprinting up the steep gradient with Cobo 50 metres behind him but, as the road began to ease up a little as they approached the finish, the red jersey began to claw him back.
Cobo caught up with Froome with just 100 metres to go and took the lead. It seemed that the Briton had done too much and the race leader was poised to take his second stage of the race. On the final steep bend though, Froome feinted right, then kicked again on the left, between Cobo and the barriers, to take the stage with a clear gap between them.
Unfortunately for the Sky man, the gap was just one second and, to take the lead, he needed at least fifteen.