It was billed as the Queen Stage and it was one of the toughest in recent memory with five brutally hard categorised climbs, but in the end it almost proved too difficult for a field containing many spill overs from the Tour. Aru, who has been targeting the Vuelta all season looked the sharpest and while his lead of the Vuelta is still a matter of seconds to the likes of Joaqium Rodriguez and Tom Dumoulin, men like Nairo Quintana (@ 3min 7sec) and Alejandro Valverde (@ 1min 52sec) are all but out of the running.
Chris Froome is very much out of the running. He limped home in 32nd, 7min 19sec after Aru who came home second behind Landa at 1min 22sec, with limping being the optimal word. Froome crashed early and though he made his way back to the main field, when the pressure went on at the front later in the stage, Froome was immediately distanced. There is no doubt Froome is not at his very best, despite coming second this past Sunday, but even tired legs from the Tour would not have seen him struggle this badly. And so it proved to be this morning when Froome failed to take to the start, abandoning the Vuelta with a broken foot.
It's a shame for the competition, and because Froome was in the mix to win this Vuelta before the stage, it leaves the debate open as to whether back-to-back Grand Tour wins is still possible? At first glance it almost appears not -- and certainly the idea of a triple crown has been put to bed -- because even before the crash, Froome has found the going tougher than he otherwise would if he hadn't rode in France this past July. Aru on the other hand looks fresher and a level above the rest. Shy of having all the contenders ride all the Grand Tours, it would seem the likely favourites are those who came in fresh and even targeting that specific race.
So was the stage too hard? Well Landa and Aru would say no, of course, and neither of them rode the Tour. Besides, the route is set long before the entry list is known and the route organisors can hardly dictate the route to account for riders who may come to contend but do so after a hard Tour de France. That said, the difficulty of the stage all but nullified any serious racing until late on and when it did open up so too did the time gaps. In contrast you had a stage like the one on stage 9 in which there was only one serious climb, right at the end, and numerous contenders, arriving that little bit fresher, took the race to one another with a winner and the potential ramifications for the overall not known until the very end.
There is a long way to go, of course, and many mountains in which Aru could yet collapse, but only Joaqium Rodriguez looks a likely contender to take the race to him.
That said, it takes all kinds of stages to make a Grand Tour and it's only in hindsight that people are questioning yesterday's epic. The morning of, anyone would be lying if they said they weren't excited for what lay in store. And with 10 stages left to go and plenty of climbing in store this stage will, at very least, have served to further soften up the legs of those who pushed hard for more potentially unpredictable action ahead.
It's that theory that we can only clutch to in the hopes that a wide open fight to win this Vuelta remains. Aru will hope I'm wrong, Rodriguez will hope I'm right, and Quintana will somehow look to the gap he almost overcame against Froome in the Alps last month.
| Result: | Classement: | ||
| 1. Landa (AST) 2. Aru (AST) 3. Boswell (SKY) 4. Moreno (KAT) 5. Rodriguez (KAT) 6. Majka (TSC) --- 8. Chaves (OGE) 9. Dumoulin (TGA) 12. Valverde (MOV) 14. Quintana (MOV) 32. Froome (SKY) | in 4h 34' 54" @ 1' 22" @ 1' 40" @ 1' 57" @ 1' 59" @ 2' 10" @ 2' 59" ST @ 3' 4" @ 4' 19" @ 8' 41" | 1. Aru (AST) 2. Rodriguez (KAT) 3. Dumoulin (TGA) 4. Majka (TSC) 5. Chaves (OGE) 6. Valverde (MOV) --- 9. Quintana (MOV) 15. Froome (SKY) 22. Roche (SKY) | in 43h 12' 19" @ 27" @ 30" @ 1' 28" @ 1' 29" @ 1' 52" @ 3' 7" @ 7' 30" @ 13' 3" |
