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Vuelta a Espana 2008 – Stage 18 Results

September 18th, 2008 by Ron Callahan 330 views No Comment

Today’s stage travels from yesterday’s arrival town of Valladolid to the city of Las Rozas. The road tilts gently upward for about the first 85 kilometers and then the stage gets a little more bumpy, culminating in the climb up Category 3 Alto des Leones at the 128km mark. From there, the riders will have a 38km downhill ride into the town of Las Rozas. The sprinters will have some time to recover before the finish.

As anticipated this morning, Tom Boonen dropped out and headed home to rest up for the World Championships. Quite unexpectedly, though, Paolo Bettini is still in the race, possibly enjoying his waning days in the rainbow jersey.

The pace was quite high in the first hour of the race – 49 km/h. There were early attacks, but no one really got away until a huge break consisting of Karsten Kroon and Iñigo Cuesta (CSC), Renaud Dion (AG2R), Jose Ruiz Sanchez (Andalucia), Imanol Erviti and José Vicente Garcia Acosta (Caisse d’Epargne), Cyril Lemoine and Nicolas Roche (Crédit Agricole), Alan Perez and Iñigo Landaluze (Euskaltel), Jelle Vanendert (FDJ), David Herrero (Xacobeo), Enrico Franzoi (Liquigas), Paolo Bettini (Quick Step), Juan Antonio Flecha (Rabobank), Greg van Avermaet (Silence), Andriy Grivko (Milram) and Vasili Kiryienka (Tinkoff) pulled clear at about km 50.

This pack was large enough to battle today’s strong headwinds and stay away from the gruppo. Their lead was nearly 4 minutes at the first intermediate sprint point in Sanchidriam and nearly 5 minutes by the feed zone in Provincia de Segovia (km 85). By the second intermediate sprint in Villacastin, the breakaway had a 7 minute lead.

Out of all of the riders in the break, Stephen Roche was highest in G.C., but he’s over 18 minutes out, so the peloton is not going to wear themselves out for these guys.

The breakaway heads up the Alto des Leones now and sat a quite comfortable 8 minutes up the road from the peloton. The lead soon dropped under seven minutes but jumped up again on the backside. Bettini is cranking away at the front and Nicholas Roche is trying to hang on.

On the descent, the pace quickly amped up to over 80 km/h. A race motorcycle was traveling with the break at high speeds and Paolo Bettini was not pleased that it is there – apparently, it was slowing him down.

With 40 km to go, the breakaway started to splinter a little. Stephen Roche was at the front with Bettini, Dion, and Franzoi chasing. Others follow a little behind. The pace was possibly a little too much for some.

With the steepest part of the descent behind them and about 27km to go, the break was back together. Grivko and Landaluze tried for an escape, but it didn’t last. Alan Perez was the next to go and held a respectable lead for a while, but Iñigo Cuesta was able to bridge, and soon the rest of the break was at his wheel.

Cyril Lemoine and Garcia Acosta were the next to go, while the rest of the break hung on for dear life. Flecha bridges the gap, then Bettini, and then the break is back together with less than 15 km to go.

At 9km Acosta and Flecha went for it, but Bettini seemed to want the stage today and went in pursuit.

With under 7 km to go, it certainly looked like the breakaway would hold on to the end. It certainly looks like the break will have a sprint all of their own.

Down to 4 km, Herrero is the next to go and manages to get a decent lead. Roche, Erviti and Kiryenka chased and caught him at the 2 km mark, then Kiryenka went to the front and briefly held the lead, only to see Roche and Erviti go by him in the final meters.

Erviti won the photo finish, with Roche in second place by a hair. Herrero got third. The peloton rolled across the line nearly seven and a half minutes later.

No big changes are expected in the G.C. Roche may move up a few positions, but Contador remains the in maillot oro.

Hmm. I’d love to see Leipheimer pull on his time trial hat and sneak past Contador on Saturday. What do you think his chanches are?