The start of today’s stage was a bit more interesting than
planned. First, half the team missed the start…they were staying cool on the
bus for as long as possible. But like always, we had a 9km neutral section, so
there was no real danger.
We knew that today was another perfect opportunity for John,
especially considering his propensity to go on hot streaks. After yesterday’s
win, he would be that much more confident. So again we were looking to deliver
John to a sprint while keeping Warren’s position on GC.
The first step in the plan is letting the right break go.
Immediately Tony Martin attacked, which was fine on a day like today. Even with
the sweltering heat, you never want him to have too much help, though, so after
a Lotto rider jumped the road mysteriously became clogged with Giant and FDJ
riders. As the gap grew, a MTN rider managed to sneak through the road block
and go for it. The probability of closing the gap was slim, but he was going to
try. As he began to fade on the rolling and twisty road, an uphill switchback
appeared. FDJ took the inside, and it was clear they were going to sweep across
at the exit of the turn to block him. In desperation, the MTN rider tried to
cut inside harder. I knew what was about to happen before it happened and was
able to avoid the pile when he washed out, but Koen and Johannes couldn’t.
Thankfully both suffered only minor road rash in the team’s first crashes of
the Vuelta.
We put Tobias on the front immediately, as you can’t let a
rider of Martin’s caliber get too far up the road. FDJ was also helping with
the chase.
The gap started to immediately fall, and over the next two
hours, we would ride slower and slower in an effort to keep from catching them
too soon. It seemed the heat was a bit too much for the breakaway and they were
begging to be put out of their misery. Finally Martin stopped altogether to
rejoin the field. With just one rider out front in the heat and headwind, we
were going really easy. Unfortunately, Lawson became the next casualty of the
slick roads in a roundabout before the feedzone and became the third rider to
hit the deck today. A fair bit of road rash, but he’ll be okay.
Expecting the same relaxed race until the only major climb
of the day, we were a bit careless with our positioning as we started a small
climb to yet another small town. Alarm bells started going off when
Tinkoff-Saxo took over and cranked up the pace. The climb was actually fairly
hard, and part of it was on cobbles.
Then, further up, there was a really hard
bottleneck that brought us to a near trackstand. We were single file over the
top and suddenly what had been a headwind all day was a cross-tail. On the fast
descent with those winds, it didn’t take long for gaps to form.
Tobias, John, and Koen were in the first group, while I was
in the second with Warren and Ramon. Ramon and I were working to get Warren
back to the first group, getting considerable help from other teams—notably
Garmin, who had also missed the split with their GC riders.
Warren would make it back, but Ramon and I couldn’t quite do
it, while Tobias would come back to join us after helping John and Koen stay
out of the wind until the proper climb began. Our grupetto would just cruise to
the finish and save our legs. In a bizarre show of sympathy toward our
teammates’ injuries, Ramon and I both got nosebleeds atop the final climb.
It wasn’t a perfect situation, but we at least had John and
Warren up front with Koen to provide the leadout. And in the end, that proved
enough, as John took his second stage win in as many days! There were
definitely some lessons to take from today, but everything came out alright and
we can do it better next time.
For now, we’ll just enjoy our champagne at dinner and
celebrate John’s second win. Tomorrow Warren gets to come out and play on the
first real uphill finish of the race.
5 down, 16 to go!
