Bike World News

With one week to go in the Vuelta, today was the day to make big moves, and that’s exactly what Alberto Contador did today. One the day with the most intense climb (the HC Alto de l’Angliru) he moved past his competitors in the final 3500 meters to take the stage and the overall lead.

The day started in San Vicente de la Basque under cloudy skies and 17º temperatures. The riders were facing a 209.5 km journey in Asturias to the finish on the Alto de l’Angliru. Between the towns was one category three climb, three category one climbs and the final 12.6 km run up the Angliru. The Angrilu is probably the most foreboding climb that the racers have faced this year. It features an average gradient of over 10 percent and maximums at 23 percent.

Attacks came early. Belgian Philippe Gilbert (FdJ) and German Stefan Schumacher (Gerolsteiner) were a couple of the notable riders who took the dare, but Christophe Kern of Credit Agricole was the first to make it clear.  He broke loose at km 37 and led by three minutes at km 40. He was chased by Slovakian Matej Jurco (Team Milram) and Dutchman Maarten Tjallingii (Silence-Lotto) over the third category Alto de Ortigueiro. He crossed the pass with a lead of 3′40 on the chasers and nearly double on the Euskaltel-led peloton.

After the descent, Kern waited for Jurco and Tjallingii. They soon raced out to a 10 minutes lead by km 85. Team Astana moved to the front of the peloton to make sure that Euskaltel didn’t walk away with the day.

The gap slowly began to drop. Over the Puerto de Arnicio at km 116, the gap was down to 8′30 and just over 5 minutes by the Alto de la Colladona. By the base of the final Category 1 climb (Alto del Corda) they only had 4′47.

Kern felt the peloton getting ever closer and tried to go solo up Alto del Corda. He managed to eke out a 27 second lead over Jurco and Tjallingii and 2′05 over the favorites, but basically blew himself out. He was able to go it alone for a while longer until he was caught at km 200.

Andreas Klöden (Astana) rode to protect teammate Contador as the race neared its end. He pulled off with 10 kilometres remaining and handed off to José Luis Rubiera. At this point, Kern had just over a minute lead. Contador sat second wheel, with Levi Leipheimer moving to the front to help Contador on the worst parts of the climb.

Tour de France champion Carlos Sastre had been popped out the back. His race was as good as over.

Leipheimer pulled off with six kilometres to go, leaving Valverde and Contador to take advantage of Sastre’s bad day. Valverde led for a while, but it was Contador who had the final show of strength. He pulled out with 3500 metres remaining, and finished the race in commanding fashion. Alejandro Valverde and Joaquím Rodríguez (Caisse d’Epargne) crossed second and third. Contador’s teammate Levi Leipheimer finished in fourth and pre-race favorite Carlos Sastre finished in fifth at 1:32.

Contador took the maillot oro and leads by 1:07 over Leipheimer and 3:01 over Sastre.

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