Contador Captures the Lead in Vuelta Stage 17

Alberto Contador surprised everyone by attacking on the basically flat Stage 17 of the Vuelta a España. The Saxo-Tinkoff rider, unable to break race leader Joaquim Rodriguez of Katusha in the mountains, instead attacked on a level roads and opened a huge gap over Rodriguez. Movistar’s Alejandro Valverde couldn’t quite catch Contador at the line, but still moved into second place.

Contador attacked when no one expected it and caught Rodriguez and his team unprepared. With this canny and very powerful performance, Contador has all but sewn up the 2012 Vuelta for himself, snatching it from Rodriguez who seemed like a prohibitive favorite the day before.

“Some people thought it was crazy to attack from so far out but I am not on my best form so I knew I had to try. I am not really happy finishing second—that is not the way I race,” Contador told Eurosport.

Most expected Stage 17 to be a dull affair, with a breakaway escaping early and getting run down by teams seeking a sprint finish. The first half of the stage was flat, with a Cat 3 and a Cat 2 climb followed by a Cat 2 summit finish, but none of the climbs were steep enough to stop any of the General Classification contenders.

Because Saxo-Tinkoff, Katusha, and Movistar and Argos-Shimano had won so many stages, many teams were desperate to win something at the season’s final Grand Tour. This made escaping very difficult; the pace for the first two hours was over 45 kph, and it took almost half the stage for eleven riders to finally get free.

The breakaway was almost caught on the slopes of the Cat 3 Collado de Ozalba and a large group of riders bridged across to the breakaway by the next climb, the Cat 2 Collado La Hoz. Significantly Saxo had three riders and Movistar two in the resulting 26-rider group, where Katusha was represented by only Alberto Losado.

This was a crucial tactic for Saxo and a crucial error for Katusha. Near the crest of the climb Alberto Contador attacked, quickly cutting through the breakaway and picking up teammates. Alejandro Valverde and Joaquim Rodriguez had to respond; they couldn’t let Contador get too far ahead. Both took off in pursuit. None of the other GC contenders were able to respond.

After the quick descent from Collado La Hoz, Contador had 45 seconds on Rodriguez. The Saxo rider still had two teammates with him in a 12-rider group. Seven kilometers later, at the base of the long, gentle final climb, The Saxo rider’s lead was 1:13. Rodriguez and Valverde were getting blown out of the race by Contador’s unexpected charge.

Astana’s Paolo Tiralongo, a former teammate of Contador, attacked the lead group at the start of the climb. Contador went with him, and the two roe off at a phenomenal pace. Three km into the climb their lead was two minutes on Rodriguez, and 3:30 on the peloton.

Katusha’s Alberto Losado cracked 14.5 km from the finish. This left race leader Joquim Rodriguez with no teammates. The only rider who would ride with him was one of Alberto Contador’s Saxo teammates, who rode along behind watching Rodriguez wear himself out.

Alejandro Valverde, seeing Rodriguez tire, took off on his own. His teammates Benat Intxausti and Nario Quintana dropped back from the breakaway to pull with him; with each taking turns, sharing the workload, the trio easily outdistanced Rodriguez and moved through the scattering breakaway to chase Contador.

Meanwhile Contador had dropped Tiralongo and was riding solo towards the end of the stage. Contador had shown tremendous speed to close with and pass the breakaway. The final ten km was a race against fatigue and Valverde, who was closing quickly with the help of his teammates. Joaquim Rodriguez, who had turned in so many amazing performances in the mountains, was being beaten soundly on a basically flat road.

Contador showed more than just physical ability here; he showed cycling wisdom. The Saxo rider realized that Rodriguez was his match in the mountains, but also that Rodriguez didn’t like long, sustained efforts; the Katusha rider was best on climbs where he could go really hard for seven or ten km, not on flats where he needed to turn a big gear at a high cadence for a couple of hours.

Contador used his time-trialing ability to beat his rival on favorable terrain. Further, he probably realized that Rodriguez had probably counted on an easy stage after Tuesday’s rest day, while Contador could prepare mentally and physically for a hard stage.

The Saxo rider’s plan worked perfectly. He held on to beat Alejandro Valverde by six seconds. With12 bonus seconds for wining and six more for winning the intermediate sprint, Contador went from a 28-second deficit to leading the race by a seemingly insurmountable 1:52 over Valverde and 2:28 over Rodriguez.

Rodriguez, who worked so hard in the mountains and repeatedly beat one of the world’s best climbers, saw his chance at glory evaporate as he and his team weren’t ready to race every stage. Some of the best mountain-climbing performances of the decade became worthless in a few hours.