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Cobo wins, Gesink fades, Valverde consolidates
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Another cold, rainy day seemed to take the spark out of the Vuelta a España in the last mountain stage going into this weekend’s finale.
Juanjo Cobo (Fuji-Servetto) won out an elite, eight-man group to make it clear over the Cat. 1 Puerto de Navacerrada late in the four-climb, 179.8km 19th stage from Ávila to La Granja while Alejandro Valverde (Caisse d’Epargne) all but secured his first overall victory in a three-week grand tour.
Banged up Dutch climber Robert Gesink (Rabobank) faded out of contention, dropping from second at 32 seconds back to a distant sixth, giving Valverde a comfortable 1:26 lead to Olympic gold medalist Samuel Sánchez (Euskaltel-Euskadi) heading into Saturday’s 27km time trial at Toledo.
“If there’s not any sort of problem, I should be able to do it tomorrow, but you cannot say you’re a winner until we’re in Madrid,” said Valverde, who had no trouble following the attacks to take second in the stage. “It was super-nervous today. There was a lot of tension in the race, but the team has been a ’10.’ They’ve protected me this entire tour.”
Cobo, Sánchez and Valverde were among eight who pulled clear on the rainy, cloud-shrouded slopes of Navacerrada climb. Joining them were Cadel Evans (Silence-Lotto), Ezequiel Mosquera (Xacobeo-Galicia), Dani Moreno (Caisse d’Epargne), Paolo Tiralongo (Lampre) and Ivan Basso (Liquigas).
Sánchez tried to gap Valverde on the twisting descent to the finish line in La Granja, but said he was so cold he could barely grip his handlebars.
“I got so cold on the descent, I could barely turn the pedals,” Sánchez said. “I was hoping to try to attack Valverde, but the legs went cold.”
Valverde marked Sánchez on the descent and the other leaders regained contact before hitting the final 3km flats to the line, when Cobo uncorked the winning move.
Tiralongo and Moreno tried to go with him, but Cobo opened up a small gap through some chicanes through the final kilometer and won two seconds clear to give his Fuji-Servetto team a morale-boosting win.
The Spanish team lost its title sponsor, Saunier Duval, and was left out of this year’s Giro d’Italia and Tour de France following disastrous doping positives involving star riders Riccardo Ricco and Leonardo Piepoli in the 2008 Tour.
Only a last-minute ruling by the Court of Arbitration for Sport opened the door for Fuji’s spot in the Vuelta.
“This win means a lot to our team. We couldn’t race the events we wanted to this year,” said Cobo, who slotted into 10th overall at 10:40 back. “Hopefully this will help us carry momentum into next season and we get back to the most important races on the calendar.”
Gesink fades
The Navacerrada climb ended the podium dreams of Gesink, who crashed hard on his left knee and elbow in Wednesday’s stage, injuries that left him bloodied and with eight stitches in his leg.
The skinny Dutch climber was able to hang with the GC boys Friday until the final climb. Once Euskaltel and Liquigas saw that Gesink was struggling, word quickly spread around the shark tank and the riders turned the screws.
Three Rabobank teammates towed the proud Gesink, but the damage was done. He limped across the line 33rd at 4:44 back and fell off the podium, from second to sixth, now 5:30 back.
“I feel empty now. I did what I could, but it wasn’t possible,” Gesink said. “The fall (Wednesday) was too much. I suffered enough today for one year.”
Seventh in last year’s Vuelta, Gesink came into the Spanish tour this year with high hopes. Now he might not even start Saturday’s time trial and instead try to recover in time for the worlds next weekend in Mendrisio.
“We’ll decide if Robert even races tomorrow or not. The most important thing is that he doesn’t take any physical risk. It’s only 27km and we’re in Madrid, but it might not be worth it,” said Rabobank sport director Erik Breukink. “He’s gone through a lot this season for a young guy. His crash out of the Tour was different because it happened early. Now he’s battled through the entire Vuelta, so to lose it like this isn’t easy.”
Battle for podium
With Valverde all but certain of winning, the real battle remains for the podium.
With Sánchez in second at 1:26, and Ezequiel Mosquera (Xacobeo-Galicia) in fifth at 2:11 back, only 45 seconds separate four riders battling for the final two spots on the podium.
Sánchez is a solid time trialist and should be able to defend at least one spot on the podium, most likely second.
“I know that the time difference to Alejandro is all but impossible to overcome,” Sánchez said. “I am going to try to win the stage. The time trial isn’t long enough to expect to be able to win the Vuelta. I started with the intention of winning, but I would be satisfied with second because Alejandro has proven he’s the strongest this year.”
So that means Ivan Basso (Liquigas), third at 1:45 back, Cadel Evans (Silence-Lotto), fourth at 1:59 back, and Mosquera will be duking it out for the final podium slot.
“The abandon of Gesink gives me a shot at the podium, but the advantage to Evans is anything but assuring,” Basso said. “Tomorrow is a particular time trial, neither long nor straight. I will give everything to try to keep then podium. I have fought to the end in this Vuelta and I think it’s fair that I deserve a place among the best.”
Of those three, Evans has the advantage as having a better track record against the clock.
The Australian should be able to erase the 14-second gap between him and Basso as well as fend off Mosquera to claim a podium spot, and could have a shot to move up to second if he has a good ride against Sánchez, just 19 seconds ahead.
Evans and Mosquera will likely remind observers of their time penalties issued on Sierra Nevada, with Evans getting a 10-second penalty and Mosquera a 20-second penalty. Mosquera’s team said they will challenge the decision if the 20-second penalty costs the team a podium spot.
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