Dario Cataldo rode to an impressive fifth place on the stage 11 time trial at the Vuelta a Espana.
Cancellara powers to win, Nibali reclaims red
Dario Cataldo rode to an impressive fifth place on the stage 11 time trial at the Vuelta a Espana.
The former Italian time trial champion used the day’s tough course to his advantage, setting a consistent pace to finish amongst the general classification contenders in Tarazona.
Rigoberto Urán crossed the line with the 17th quickest time on the day, an impressive response after time loss on Monday. That result elevated the Colombian two places back up the leaderboard to 13th.
The stage always looked likely to produce a fight between Tony Martin and Fabian Cancellara, and that proved to be the case in a key indicator of form ahead of the Time Trial World Championship later in the month.
It was Cancellara who prevailed, the RadioShack-Leopard man fastest through every split to set a storming time of 51 minutes flat. That marker was 37 seconds quicker than rival Martin
Domenico Pozzovivo (AG2R-La Mondiale) produced the surprise ride of the day to net third, while Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) reclaimed the red leader’s jersey with fourth spot.
The Italian comfortably had the measure of overnight leader Chris Horner, putting 1:39 in the RadioShack-Leopard rider as the American slipped to fourth overall.
Vasil Kiryienka held a place in the top five for much of the day before eventually placing 23rd, 3:04 back.
Race of truth
Stage 11’s course took the riders on a 38.8km route starting and finishing in Tarazona, close to Zaragoza, with the first 18km climbing up to the category-three Alto del Moncayo and the remaining 20km rolling downhill back into the town.
Lieuwe Westra (Vacansoleil-DCM) set the early pace with a fastest time of 54:22, but that was soon eclipsed by five-time Ukranian national time trial champion Andriy Grivko (Astana), who stopped the clock in 54:12.
Both were soon blown out of the water when Martin went fastest by almost two minutes at the second intermediate split, at 26km, and drove on to take the lead by more than two and a half minutes at the finish in 51:37.
The margin of the German’s lead suggested Cancellara would be hard pushed to better that mark, but the Swiss maestro has been in sublime climbing form at the Vuelta and tore up the Mancayo to better Martin by 34 seconds at the second split. He then consolidated his advantage on the technical descent home to complete victory
With the stage win sewn up attention then turned to the GC contenders. Alejandro Valverde (7th, Movistar) required a wheel change on the climb but still moved onto the provisional podium. Nicolas Roche (6th, Team Saxo-Tinkoff) continued his strong Vuelta by moving back up to second overall.
Back on song
After the stage Sports Director Marcus Ljungqvist praised the rides of Uran and Cataldo, and reflected on an invaluable learning experience for Sergio Henao.
“We saw some good rides from the team today," he said. "It was good to see Rigo back on it after a tough day on Monday. He was happy with that too as you always want to know where your level is after something like that. Of course fifth for Dario was a really good effort.
“There was a lot of wind around on course, with a headwind and then crosswinds, so coming off the climb was quite dangerous. But we stayed safe which is the main thing.
“Sergio was hoping for more with his ride today. We’ll stick to the plan and we’ll help Sergio to gain the experience of being team leader. It’s all part of his development and we know the talent he has.”
