Valverde gains a spot with late attack at Vuelta
Movistar rider up to second overall behind Coℱntador
Although Alberto Contador received most of the media attention after Wednesday’s spectacular attack 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:en route to Fuente Dé, 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Alejandro Valverde performed no less well, charging away from the crumbling Joaquim Rodríguez group to move up to second overall at the 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Vuelta a España.
The Movistar rider had settled for third in Madrid prior to Wednesday, but his tenacious counter-attack saw him come within six seconds of catching Contador on the stage and move up one place overall. It also re-confirmed Movistar’s domination of the tea♑ms classification.
"I&rsquo𒆙;ve done a good job and I’m pleased," Valverde - who only came to the Vuelta as a last-minute replacement as leader for Juan Jose Cobo, who had fallen ill - said afterwards.
"Contador caught us all napping and it was impossible to catch him. But getting two and a half minutes on 'Purito', plus the time bon✱us - that’s good."
Valverde said that Contador attacked on theﷺ second category Collado de laꦰ Hoz, "and we were always 10 to 15 seconds down on him, but where the gap really started to open up was on the descent."
"My race was different to theirs, because I was going fine becaus💮e I could drop [Chris] Froome." - o🐷n paper, his challenger for the third spot overall.
After dropping Rodríguez "I never thought I could catch Contador, but on the first hard section of climb, I wen𒐪t for it anyway, thinking about the overall more than anything else. I’m sorry for 'Purito', but racing is like that."
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Overall, as Valverde said, "it’s almost impossibl🍃e to improve on such a good result for us. We had Rodríguez two minutes ahead of us and now we’re ahe꧋ad of him."
"It’s been a very tough day, but even so it’s been perfect🔯 for us, although I’d like tomorrow to be easier, please!"
Alasdair Fotheringham has been reporting on cycling since 1991. He has covered every Tour de France since 1992 bar one, as well as numerous other bike races of all shapes and sizes, ranging from the Olympic Games in 2008 to the now sadly defunct Subida a Urkiola hill climb in Spain. As well as working for Cyclingnews, he has also written for The Independent, The Guardian, ProCycling, The Express and Reuters.