It was the seemingly ageless Spaniards 11th career win at the Vuelta, the first of which came twelve years ago on stage 9 of the 2003 edition, a race in which he won two stages and finished third overall behind Roberto Heras and Isidro Nozal. Also winning stages that year was the still-active Joaquim Rodriguez (who finished 6th today) as well as the long since retired Erik Zabel. Abandoning the day of Valverde's big first win was 35 year old Alex Zulle, the same age that Valverde is now.
The win today wasn't enough to wrestle the Red race leaders jersey off the shoulders of Esteban Chaves (who finished 10th) as the top 25 were all given the same time, strangely, despite seemingly obvious gaps between riders on the line. Still, thanks to a 10 second time-bonus Valverde did jump up to 4th overall and in winning showed he's recovered from that grueling three week Tour in July pretty well as Chris Froome and Nairo Quintana both finished several lengths behind him.
Sagan had clearly been targeting this one and after winning yesterday must have liked his chances of making it two wins on the trot, but the finish appeared to come quicker than he expected and as he fought to get past other riders who were slowing, he failed to keep tight on the wheel of Valverde and ran out of room to get past him before the line arrived.
In fourth place was Team Sky's Nicolas Roche who having also finished third on Sunday's summit finish, has shown he's carrying good form, coming close to winning both stages while keeping a high placing overall. Whether Roche is being given a bit of freedom to bid for GC contention or simply try get a big result in this tough opening first week remains to be seen, but the efforts he has been putting in clearly aren't simply in service of Froome.
And likewise Valverde over his team-leader Nairo Quintana. Can Roche and Valverde keep this form up or will Froome and Quintana answer back and re-assert their dominance? The hill-top finishes thus far have been too short to get any real definitive idea as to who the strongest riders are, highlighted by how tight the GC still is with 13 men within a minute of the lead, but both stages will have served to soften the legs a little and we won't have long to wait long to get a better idea of everyone's form.
Tomorrow is a flat stage but on Thursday they hit hills again with yet another steep finish; this time a 2km drag up to the line after plenty of climbing beforehand.
| Result: | Overall: | ||
| 1. Valverde (MOV) 2. Sagan (TCS) 3. Moreno (KAT) 4. Roche (SKY) 5. Goncalves (CJR) 6. Rodriguez (KAT) | in 5h 7' 30" all ST | 1. Chaves (OGE) 2. Dumoulin (TGA) 3. Roche (SKY) 4. Martin (TCG) 5. Valverde (MOV) 6. Rodriguez (KAT) | in 13h 11' 31" @ 5" @ 15" @ 24" @ 28" @ 35" |
