Contador 26 km away from Pais Vasco victory

Markina, 11th of April – 2014

Today’s 160.2 kilometer long penultimate stage of Vuelta Pais Vasco offered five climbs on the undulating stretch from Eibar to Markina-Xemein. For Tinkoff-Saxo this was the final defense of the leader’s jersey as a collective because tomorrow’s stage is an individual time trial over 26 kilometers.

A group of 16 hopeful riders including Samuel Sanchez (CJR), Bauke Mollema (Belkin) and Philippe Gilbert (BMC) formed today’s breakaway while the Tinkoff-Saxo lads maintained a high pace in the pack to prevent attacks from the GC riders. But obviously second overall, Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) wanted a go in order to gain some of the 12 seconds he needs to conquer the overall lead from Contador so his team took over the pace making with 40 kilometers to go.

Soon, most of the escapees were caught but Movistar kept pushing the pace and riders were practically parked on the slopes while Bauke Mollema (Belkin) and Bob Jungels (Trek Racing) were fighting to hang on to the lead. But with 12 to go, it was over for the escapees and now up for the GC riders. Just as everyone thought that Valverde would launch an attack, Tinkoff-Saxo’s Roman Kreuziger went to the front and ripped the group to pieces setting a violently high pace. With one kilometer to go of the final climb, Valverde finally launched his attack but Contador was on his tail immediately while yesterday’s stage winner, Wout Poels (Omega-Pharma Quick Step) bridged the gap on the descent.

However, the leading trio was caught with 1.5 kilometers to go and Tony Martin (Omega-Pharma Quick Step) took the decimated group to the finish line where Ben Swift (Sky) surprised everyone by not only following the climbers but also taking the stage win ahead of Alejandro Valverde and Michael Kwiatkowski (Omega-Pharma Quick Step).

Tinkoff-Saxo’s Alberto Contador finished 9th and retained his overall lead of the race with 12 seconds before tomorrow’s crucial time trial:

“The stage was as hard as we expected but our main goal was that Alberto would cross the finish line with Valverde and the other favorites and we succeeded. But a 12 second lead is not an overwhelmingly safe one and Alberto really has to live up to his very best in order to keep the rivals behind. However, the course suits him well as it includes two climbs of 3.5 and 4 kilometers but we have seen Valverde perform excellently as well on the slopes so it’s going to be a real thrill sitting in the car behind him tomorrow,” says DS, Philippe Mauduit.

Jesper Hansen and Michael Mørkøv both abandoned today’s race to fill the empty spots in our line-up for Paris-Roubaix on Sunday.