Australian Adam Hansen timed his attack to perfection to win the 180.5km 19th stage of the Vuelta a Espana from Salvaterra do Mino to Cangas do Morrazo on Friday.
The 33-year-old Lotto-Belisol rider took off with just more than 4km remaining and held off a charging peloton to win by 5 seconds to German John Degenkolb and Italy’s Filippo Pozzato.
Spain’s Alberto Contador maintained his race lead of 1 minute, 19 seconds over last year’s Tour de France winner Chris Froome as both came home safely in the reduced pack.
Photo: AFP
Asked if he was surprised at his victory, Hansen was in a light-hearted mood.
“I’ve won a Giro stage, now a Vuelta stage, it’s coming together and I’m very happy,” Hansen said.
Contador admitted he was inching ever closer to a third Vuelta triumph with just two stages remaining.
Behind Froome, another former Vuelta winner, Alejandro Valverde, is at 1 minute, 32 seconds, with Joaquim Rodriguez at 2:29 and Fabio Aru 3:15 back.
Yesterday’s penultimate stage was the main danger for Contador, with four categorized climbs over the 185.7km run from Santo Estevo de Ribas de Sil to Puerto de Ancares, including the 12.7km hors category finish with an average gradient of 8.7 percent and one part reaching 18 percent.
The stage was animated by a three-man breakaway, but although Wout Poels, Pim Ligthart and Laurent Mangel spent about 140km in the lead, they were never allowed a lead of more than 3 minutes, 30 seconds.
They were reeled in with just more than 20km remaining as Contador’s Tinkoff-Saxo team upped the pace to guard against any attacks, such as Froome managed the previous day as he snatched back 20 seconds including time bonuses.
As the pack hit the final difficulty of the stage, a 4.7km long second-category climb, Astana’s Alexey Lutsenko attacked as the favorites kept a close eye on each other.
Froome’s Sky team pushed the pace, but more in an effort to control the field than to break it up.
Lutsenko was never allowed more than 10 seconds over the peloton and as he crested the Alto Monte Faro, he still had more than 15km to ride and little hope of holding on.
Yet on a fast downhill toward the finish, the Kazakh managed to extend his lead to 14 seconds with 10km remaining, although the Giant-Shimano team of sprint competition leader Degenkolb was now leading the chase.
However, it was a dangerous descent as Sky’s Cario Cataldo found out to his cost as he crashed badly, almost taking down Contador, but perhaps more importantly jeopardizing his chances of helping Froome yesterday.
Lutsenko persisted, but within another 5km he had been swallowed up.
Hansen was next to try his luck on a slight incline and this time he made it stick to earn his second Grand Tour victory following a Giro success last year.
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