Froome closes in on an historic double
Briton ‘very much in control’ of La Vuelta with just a week to go
With one week of the race remaining, Chris Froome’s lead was trimmed to 55 seconds at the Vuelta a Espana yesterday as Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) picked up four bonus seconds for finishing third on stage 14.
Froome, though, finished on the Italian’s wheel in fourth place, having ridden across a gap on the special category La Pandera climb.
Afterwards he said he had always felt “very much in control” and had been “saving his legs” for today’s huge mountain test, a short but explosive 129.4km route that takes in two category one climbs before an ‘especial climb’ summit finish.
The day’s 10-man breakaway group saw their lead slashed ahead of the two final climbs, although Rafal Majka (Bora-hansgrohe) was able to hang on, eventually going solo from about 8km and winning the stage by 27sec from Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana).
Behind the breakaway, Astana set the early pace in the peloton to try to set up Fabio Aru for the stage win but the Italian struggled to maintain the pace.
Gradually, the general classification favourites tried to bridge the gap to Majka, whose lead was around 1 min 20sec with 5km to go.
Froome had his Sky team-mates Mikel Nieve and Wout Poels for company, the Dutchman riding at tempo as Nibali, Alberto Contador (Trek-Segafredo) and Esteban Chaves (Orica-Scott) all jumped from the Sky-led bunch.
Froome never panicked, though, and when Poels pulled off with just over 2.5km to go, the Briton was able to do the final work to get back to Nibali and Contador along with Astana’s Lopez.
“When Alberto Contador, Nibali and Chaves kicked on there with four to five kilometres to go we knew it was a long way to go, with over 10 minutes still of climbing,” Froome said. “So I was very much in control with Wout, and also thinking a little bit about tomorrow as that’s a massive day – a really, really massive day.
“Even though it’s shorter it’s going to be explosive, and we’re expecting fireworks again. That was a great day for us – a good one to tick off and to come out without having lost any major time. Four bonus seconds [lost] to Nibali, that’s all right – I will take that for today and save my legs for tomorrow.
“I think we have managed today really well. The guys were able to save their legs today – we did not have to do too much work, as other teams came to ride – so we are very much in control and looking forward to one more hard day before the rest day.
“For us it is really just about maintaining the position we have. And if we see an opportunity then we will go for it.”
No Briton has ever won the Vuelta, while only two riders – the Frenchmen Jacques Anquetil and Bernard Hinault – have ever won the Tour and the Vuelta in the same season.
The race ends in Madrid a week today.