The anti-Froome is the Shark, the only possible rival that can hinder the Briton in achieving the goal of the Tour and Vuelta double in the same year. This is what the eleventh stage, one of the toughest of the Vuelta, said with the final ascent to the 2.120 meters of the Calar Alto observatory, a stage run in the rain and ending in the cold of the altitude that upset the classification behind Froome.
The stage was won by the Colombian Luis Miguel Lopez, born in 1994, already a Tour of Switzerland in his palmarès, an emerging talent in world cycling who took the luxury of preceding Froome and Nibali by 14″. Of the other "captains" only Wilco Kelderman survived, finishing fourth with the same time as the red jersey. For others it was a bad defaillance if not a definitive surrender.
In particular, Nibali took advantage of it and jumped to second place with a gap of 1'19” from Froome (who forfeited 6″ bonus against the 4″ of the Italian). Everything was decided in the last five km of the final climb, when Atapuma and Bardet were caught up and the attacks between the big names began: it was Nibali who lit the fuse and for a while found in Contador an ally always ready to poke Froome.
The Briton, who didn't seem to be in his best days, lost a hundred meters but with Nieve's help he soon recovered on the treads. Nibali tried again, a draw which only Froome, Kelderman and Lopez resisted. When everyone was expecting Froome's final smoothie, it was Lopez who took off, pointing the noble company in the lurch.
Froome contented himself with regulating his main rival, the Shark, in the sprint. For the other heavy delays: Chaves arrived almost 2 minutes after Froome and slipped down the standings to third place 2'33” from the red jersey. Niholas Roche who was second with Chaves at 36″ from Froome took a blow that dropped him to 11th place at 4'45”.
Increasingly complicated vuelta for Aru who remains seventh in the general classification but with a delay that has risen to almost three minutes. Teejay Van Garderen and Poels also finished outside the top ten with Roche, while Alberto Contador reappears in the top 10 of the standings, who by finishing sixth yesterday lost another second from Froome, however gaining on many others who preceded him: now the Pistolero is ninth at 3 '54” by the British leader. Finally, the retirement of Domenico Pozzovivo should be remembered.
