The three days on the surly heights of Asturias did not give the Vuelta the definitive verdict but it served as a first convincing screening of the possible winners, a poker of big names collected in less than a minute in a short classification led by Simon Yates, protagonist on Saturday Les Praeres where he won the stage and the red jersey.
The sensations offered by this tremendous "mountain trilogy" speak in his favor but behind the British the irreducible Valverde at 26", Quintana at 33" and Lopez at 43" are pressing and holding the court, three big names who don't seem at all resigned to delivering to Bury's elf final success in Madrid.
A four-way match very probable but in cycling nothing is taken for granted and to make one of the most open Vueltas more attractive from the fog that enveloped the finale on the finish line in Lagos de Covadonga, Thibaut Pinot emerged with peremptory action in the last three km of ascent, day after day he appears regenerated after the terrible crush on the Giro in the Cervinia stage: dehydrated and destroyed, the hospitalized Frenchman seemed destined to end the season prematurely.
Instead, yesterday he left Yates and his companions in the lurch and flew away to conquer his first victory at the Vuelta, beating Lopez by 28", Yates by 30", Valverde and Kruijswijck by 32" and Quintana by 34" who once again appeared among the big names the softest right on the ramps where he triumphed in the red jersey for two years, mortgaging the final success. Pinot, who had dropped out of the top ten, rejoined by authority climbing up to seventh position 2'10” from Yates and also overtaking Uran who suffered from the first accelerations losing the wheels of the leaders.
A defaillance that comes right on the eve of Tuesday's time trial stage after today's rest in Santander, a race against time that sees Uran clearly favored over the various Lopez, Yates, Quintana and Pinot himself. Slipped to eighth position 2'27” behind Yates, Uran appears to be a less formidable opponent after yesterday.
Out of the race and out of revs on yesterday's long climb Fabio Aru immediately went, who after giving hope for something good with the tenth place in Les Praeres, suffered the umpteenth defeat of his unfortunate season by finishing the stage over 5 minutes from Pinot. The Sardinian slipped to 14th place in the standings at 8'19” from Yates, also overtaken by Gianluca Brambilla, brilliant eleventh yesterday at 2'38” from Pinot.
Stage of total training for Nibali who arrived in 92nd at over 28 minutes. But the Shark is at the Vuelta thinking only of the World Championship in Innsbruck. The unfortunate Kwiatkwoski also arrived before Nibali, who after a fall still wanted to finish the stage, finishing 73rd 23 minutes behind the winner.
