Bike World News

Cycling news, race results, new products, fitness, maintenance and more

Home » Featured, Road Racing News, Vuelta a Espana

2009 Vuelta a Espana – Stage 16 Results

September 15th, 2009 by Al Fresco View Comments

Today’s stage from Cordoba to Puertollano was a relatively flat 170.3 km, offering the sprinters their first opportunity in several days to go for a stage win. The day offered up just two Category 3 climbs coming early in the stage and the day looks to end with a slightly downhill run into Puertollano.

The organizers of the Vuelta offered a peek at next year’s race this morning. The 2010 race will start with an evening prologue in Seville and the race leader will now wear a red jersey instead of the maillot oro that has been used for the last 8 years.

David Moncoutie went out hard to capture the KOM points on the Alto de los Villares, but Jesus Rosendo Prado (Andalucia Cajasur) attacked just after the summit to make a solo go of it. He opens up a gap of 11’30″ by km 47. That was the biggest gap recorded and starts to come back down, even though the peloton is not chasing with great fervor. It’s hard to be out their all alone.

Milram, Columbia and Contentpolis are (after a fashion) leading the chase of Rosendo. His gap is down to 7 minutes at km 97. As Velo News said, the peloton could stop for a casual lunch without threat of Rosendo making a significant impact on the G.C.

With 56km to go, the advantage is down to 5’15″. Rosendo looks comfortable, but he has to know that this won’t last. There is an echelon of nearly 20 riders at the fore of the peloton. Looks like most of Columbia-HTC is in there as well as some riders from Milram and Liquigas.The pace throughout the race has been decidedly casual through the first 120 km, with the pace struggling to reach 30 km/h.

With 45km to go, Rosendo’s lead is just over 4 minutes. I predict that he might hold on long enough to get the solidario sprint bonus before sitting up and rejoining the peloton.

The gap drops quickly. With just under 40 km remaining, it’s under 3 minutes now. At the rate that his advantage is dropping, it’s a very good possibility that Rosendo could be caught before the solidario sprint comes at 30 km.

Against my expectations, he makes the sprint mark and gets to wear the red number tomorrow. He leads the peloton by 2’10″. They are going to put off catching Resondo as long as possible to prevent counter attacks. He’s been out there alone for more than 130 km now.

With 28 km to go, his lead has dropped under two minutes. The roads here are long, straight and flat, and he can surely look over his shoulder and see the caravan looming behind him.

With a little under 20 km to go, he has just 45 seconds over the peloton. At 18km, he’s caught. He deserves some congratulations for his bold effort today.

Columbia, Quick Step and Milram move their sprint teams to the front. Now Columbia and Liquigas are vying for control. Garmin, too, hoping to put Julian Dean in a spot to make a go of it.

With just about 4 km to go, there is a crash. Roger Hammond, Julian Dean and Wouter Weylandt are just a few of the key names that went down.

Into the final corner, its Sabatini, Bennati, Ciolek, Duque & Greipel. Greipel makes a go for it and takes his third stage win of the Vuelta.

Brief Results: