La Vuelta continues to give emotions in a stage won by the Belgian Sander Armée, good at outdoing his teammates in the day's breakaway. The last to give up was Lutsenko, who finished second at 31”. As often happens two races in one, in front of twenty men out of the standings in search of glory, behind more than ten minutes the battle between the big names for the top of the standings.
After the failure on the Vaca Pasiega Monument, everyone's eyes were focused on Froome's reaction who paid Nibali a 42” penalty. The Vuelta had never been closed but on Wednesday he had taken a turn against the British leader for the first time. Twenty-four hours later at the finish line in Santo Toribio de Liébana, at the end of a less grim ascent Froome is back to take over the reins of the race, regaining half of the seconds lost against NIbali the day before. The Shark, on a climb that allowed for pace, suffered yesterday from Froome's accelerations, ending up being 21” behind the red jersey.
Who instead cContinuing to surprise by offering performances and attacks is Contador who runs for himself looking, with the heart but also with the legs of the best Pistolero, for the last victory that is eluding him from stage to stage. An immense pride and class, Contador continues to be the tip of the balance of this Vuelta, sometimes to the advantage of Nibali, yesterday of Froome.
Two days from Angliru, which tomorrow will give the definitive face to the standings before the final show in Madrid, Nibali unexpectedly lost an important round but not yet the match, even if Froome brought the advantage over the Italian back to 1'37”. The Briton is more than ever one step away from hitting the Tour and Vuelta double in the same year: he would be the first rider since the Spanish race was moved to the calendar in August – Anquetil and Hinault won the yellow and red jerseys when the Vuelta was still there it took place before the Giro d'Italia.
The master of four Tours to date has proved to be the strongest, not for nothing that in addition to leading the time classification in the red jersey, he is the leader of the points classification and the combined. But Nibali would do wrong not to try until the very last moment given that today's Froome, despite still being a powerful engine, is no longer the Martian of the 2013 Tour as evidenced by Wednesday's mini-failure.
