August 31, Stage 11: Verín - Estación de Montaña Manzaneda 171km

ednwireland

just in case wondering whats in store for wed :eek:

Verín - Estación de Esquí Alto de la Manzaneda

Summit finish debut

Often bypassed by the Vuelta, Galicia is back on the race route with a cluster of tough stages, starting with this one that concludes with a first ever summit finish at the Manzaneda ski station. Rather like the Covatilla stage, there are rugged but not overly testing mountain sections early on, but the main interest comes right at the end of the day. Rising at an average of 6 per cent for 19km, the climb’s steepest sections come just before the resort, where the road drops then ramps up again to the summit’s TV masts. Given the length of this climb, a breakaway is unlikely to survive.

Morrisseeee

So...........will Dan the man go for another stage win, I reckon he might, the final climb suits Wiggins/Nibali, but if Dan can hang on he has the better finish.

Story so far:
Leader(s) - 19 riders : 5min 10sec:
64 Duarte (COL, GEO) +7:04
158 L. Sánchez (ESP, RAB) +10:17
44 Moncoutié (FRA, COF) +10:28
55 Oroz (ESP, EUS) +26:46
56 Txurruka (ESP, EUS) +32:12
137 E. Petrov (RUS, AST) +44:10
82 Horrach (ESP, KAT) +46:30
21 Bernabéu (ESP, ACG) +59:58
113 Intxausti (ESP, MOV) +1:09:11
31 M. Frank (SUI, BMC) +1:11:16
125 V. Reynés (ESP, OLO) +1:13:25
95 Ai. Pérez (ESP, LAM) +1:20:50
105 O'Grady (AUS, LEO) +1:21:00
18 Montaguti (ITA, ALM) +1:23:17
208 Paulinho (POR, RSH) +1:29:10
71 M. Albasini (SUI, THR) +1:41:59
34 Quinziato (ITA, BMC) +1:42:10
25 Palomares (ESP, ACG) +1:44:39
165 J. Jørgensen (DEN, SBS) +1:51:57

happytramp

Another top four finish on this stage would be a massive statement of intent from Martin.

dastardly00

The gi-normous breakaway have 7:30 over the peloton with 30km to go. The likes of Moncoutie and LL Sanchez might have enough of a gap to win?

happytramp

Yeah actually, can't see the winner not being in that front group.

Morrisseeee

Its a very long climb though, that time will come down once the main contenders get going.

happytramp

It's a pity it's almost impossible to win the KOTM jersey and ride a GC race.

retalivity

go on dan!

n-dawg

Come on Dan great attack

RobFowl

Another good ride by Martin and Roche.
Twiggo reigns at the moment though.
Close at the top....

JacksonHeightsOwn

RobFowl wrote: »

Another good ride by Martin and Roche.
Twiggo reigns at the moment though.
Close at the top....

i just came in the door as wiggins crossed the line (awesome ride, he's in super form)

where did Roche finish?

RobFowl

chrisbonnie wrote: »

i just came in the door as wiggins crossed the line (awesome ride, he's in super form)

where did Roche finish?

@3:34 (Wiggo's group with Dan Martin was @3:08)

Roche drops to 18th Martin 22nd or 23rd

John.Icy

Roche finished around 23 seconds to the wiggo group..he had been losing around 40 to them on the two other similar very long drags to the top of mountain finishes like siera nevada and the stage dan won, so he seems to be holding onto them more, and coming into better form on the very long climbs.

happytramp

Martin looks to be holding his own on those long drags that he's not especially fond of too.

TheBlaaMan

Its interesting that there's been no mention yet of the winner of todays stage, albeit the Irish interest is very relavant. It was great to see David Moncoutie win so decisively though. He's one of my favourite riders, primarily because of his reputation for just wanting to get on his bike and ride and the fact that he is universally acknowledged as being clean. He has been criticised in the past for not being ambitious enough, but for me he's exciting to watch in the mountains and he showed real strength today. I was in a dilemma when it was him against Thor in the Tour stage into Lourdes, but I'd say that today he got some satisfaction from that win.