Alessandro De Marchi wins stage 11 – La Vuelta
2018 Vuelta a Espana
Stage 11
Pinot, of the Groupama-FDJ team, rode half of the longest stage of the race in the virtual race lead before seeing his gains cut to just 13 seconds after a well fought finish in heavy rain at Luintra.
With BMC team-mates Nicholas Roche and Dylan Teuns also in the 19-man break that animated the undulating 207.8km stage through Galicia, De Marchi emerged through the rainclouds to solo to a third career win in La Vuelta in sudden, bright sunshine.
Colombian youngster Jhonatan Restrepo (Katusha-Alpecin) came home 28 seconds down in second place after being dropped by De Marchi with 4km to go, while Italian veteran Franco Pellizotti (Bahrain Merida) took third place at 59 seconds.
The remnants of the break – including the Belgian Teuns, Ireland’s Roche and the red pretender Pinot – came home in dribs and drabs before Spanish veteran led the elite group of race favourites over the line 2’02” in arrears.
Great Britain’s Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) was part of the main pack and limited his losses to Pinot, who for all his efforts stays in 16th place in the general classification but now trails the summit by 2’20”. Germany’s Emanuel Buchmann (Bora-Hansgrohe) conceded eight seconds on his rivals to drop out of the top five to sixth place, while Italy’s Fabio Aru (UAE Team Emirates) slipped out of the top 10 after leaking 41 seconds in the heavy rain.
Unsurprisingly for a stage that had ‘breakaway’ written all over it, there was a fierce battle to make a move that stuck. With the average pace above 45km/h over the first two hours of intense racing, numerous riders saw their efforts thwarted after group upon group was reeled in by a strung-out peloton.
It was not until the second of four categorised climbs after 100km of bare-knuckle racing that the day’s break finally formed when a group of nine riders was joined by another 10 chasers going over the summit of the Cat.3 Alto do Covelo.
Despite the presence of Pinot – lurking 2’32” down in the standings – the 19-man break quickly built up a lead of over four minutes, putting the Frenchman well and truly in the virtual race lead.
Back with the pack it was the Movistar team of Valverde and Nairo Quintana who half-heartedly led the chase, with Yates’ Mitchelton-Scott team content to simply monitor the situation in the knowledge that their man Jack Haig – himself 4’29” down on Yates in the overall standings – was also present in the move.
Dutchman Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo) was first over the Cat.2 Alto do Trives with 70km remaining before riding clear to enjoy a brief foray off the front.
Twice runner-up so far on this year’s Vuelta, Mollema soloed clear on a descent following an earlier two-man dig from Pinot and Teuns which, although promising, had come to nothing.
Mollema was joined by Pinot, De Marchi, Roche, Haig, Pellizotti, Rafal Majka (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Sergio Henao (Team Sky) ahead of the fourth categorised climb. Tiesj Benoot (Lotto Soudal), Teuns and Restrepo bridged over before Mikel Bizkarra (Euskadi-Murias) and Nans Peters (Ag2R-La Mondiale) made it a 13-man group entering the final 30km.
Roche then paved the way for De Marchi with an early attack to cover Restrepo on the long Cat.3 ascent of the Alto del Mirador de Cabezoas. De Marchi soloed clear but was joined by Restrepo just ahead of the summit, the duo passing over with 40 seconds to play with.
Behind it was Pellizotti and Peters who zipped clear in pursuit ahead of the final uncategorised climb before the finish. With 5km remaining, the heavens opened just as De Marchi – mindful of Restrepo’s superior kick – decided to make his final move and ride clear of his co-leader.
A previous stage winner on Le Vuelta in 2014 and 2015, De Marchi crested the brow with a decent gap and defied the rain to negotiate his way to a career hat-trick in Spain.
“If I waited for the sprint I think I was for sure second,” 32-year-old De Marchi said. “The only option was to try everything on the last climb. Honestly, I didn’t have the best legs – it was just in the mind.
‘At one moment today I said that I had to keep trying and going because it was really fighting a battle every moment. Every move was looking like the good one but they came back, so it was really difficult. I just told myself to do the maximum I could and then see. Sometimes you think you’ve lost something and you need to come first over the line to remind you [of your qualities].”
Back in the battle for red, it was the EF Education First-Drapac team of Rigoberto Uran who took over the reins on the front of the pack as the reduced peloton exploded on the approach to Luintra.
Canadian Michael Woods had a brief foray off the front before the returning Pierre Rolland – who was part of the break – put in a big pull.
But besides the distancing of Buchmann and Aru, there were no significant losses for any of the race favourites – although the increase in tempo did reduce Pinot’s gains to just 13 seconds on a day that could well have seen a GC ambush.
Pinot admitted that his move had been a bit of a gamble but said he had no regrets. “I lost a fair bit of energy,” he said, “but I came on the Vuelta to race and I’m going to give it another try if I can in the days to come.”
Two years after he won the corresponding stage in Luintra, Yates returned to the podium – but this time to pick up another red jersey. The 26-year-old retained his one-second lead over Valverde with Quintana in third at 14 seconds.
Spain’s Ion Izagirre (Bahrain Merida) and Frenchman Tony Gallopin (Ag2R-La Mondiale) leapfrogged Buchmann into the top five, trailing Yates by 17 seconds and 24 seconds respectively.
Tomorrow’s stage 12 takes the riders 181.1km from Mondonedo to Faro de Estaca de Bares.
With the entire top 10 still separated by only 47 seconds, the scene is set for an explosive three days in the high mountains starting on Friday. But before that there’s the prospect of another bunch sprint at the lighthouse overlooking the most northerly tip of Galicia. Two lower-category climbs and some rolling roads may thin out the pack but the ingredients are there for an Elia Viviani hat-trick or a belated win for the world champion Peter Sagan.
