Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Antón flies to Vuelta stage-win

Igor Antón annihilated the opposition with an amazing surge inside the final 500 metres on today's fourth stage of the Vuelta a España to take the win and move into second overall. The stage ended with a gruelling climb up to Veldepeñas de Jaén; a short but unrelenting steep climb featuring pitches of up to 27%. This ascent proved to be the perfect stomping ground for Igor to make his mark and in the process take a popular win for the team. In the end he didn't distance second-placed and GC rival Nibali by more than a second, but other heavy-hitters were solidly left trailing in his wake. Menchov and F Schleck both finished at 19 seconds, while Sastre, not surprisingly I have to admit, ruled himself out of the running by losing a big 1:33 after losing touch with the 20-rider strong front-group on the penultimate climb. Igor punched the air in delight when crossing the line, while the magnificent Mikel Nieve, who brilliantly escorted his leader all day and set a furious tempo at the bottom of the ascent, crossed the line 18th at only 36 seconds. Superb riding from the young grimpeur. Full results and post-race reactions later.

5 comments:

arnout said...

Brilliant. I was more or less expecting Anton to win a stage in this Vuelta, but not this quick. Great, now he can relax a little bit and focus on winning the Vuelta.

Nieve is the superdomestique it seems. Benat was having another bad day I assume...

kKDu said...

Oh, what a great day. Awesome Anton and awesome Mikel :)

onclebunny26 said...

Oh thats great!!!! I have to agree: awesome Anton and awesome Mikel :))
Hope now Anton gets the whole thing

Magnus said...

Yep, they were both pretty awesome!

Bolsen3 said...

That was awesome!! So glad to see Igor finally win a GT stage win again after 4 years. Surly he must be one of the hottest favorites for the Fleche Wallone the coming years!

 

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