168澳洲5最新开奖结果

Vuelta a España 2014: Stage 16

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January 1 - September 14, San Martín del Rey Aurelio, Spaiꦚn, Road - WorldTour

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Live coverage of 💮stage 16 of the Vuelta a Espa&ntil𒐪de;a, 160.5 kilometres from San Martín del Rey Aurelio to La Farrapona.

The peloton is making its way through the neutralised zone for the Vuelta's third successive summit finish and, arguably, the toughest stage of the entire race. There are f🐬ive climbs crammed into just 100 miles of racing, including four category 1 ascents.

T💟he war of attrition begins early, with the peloton reaching the base of the Category 1 Alto de la Colladona (7.4km at 6.7%) after just ten kilometres. After a descent and 40 kilometres of valley, the road pitches up once again for the category 2 Alto del Cordal (7.6km at 5.5%), followed in rapid succession by the category 1 Alto de la Cobertoria (10km at 8.8%). Next up is the category 1 Puerto de San Lorenzo (10.1km at 8.5%) before the final haul to La Farrapona ♛(16.5km at 8.5%).

158km remaining from 160km

154km remaining from 160km

Ivan Rovny (Tinkoff-Saxo) is also in this leading group, meaning that Alberto Contador, Chris Froome and Alejandro Valverde all have representatives ᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚup front. There is nobody from Katusha involved in the 🦩move, however, and Joaquim Rodriguez's men are at the head of the peloton trying to bring it back.

150km remaining from 160km

The baker's dozen at the head of the race are: Rohan Dennis (BMC), Philippe Gilbert (BMC), Sander Armee (Lotto-Belisol), Laurens ten Dam 💖(Belkin), Luis León Sánchez (Caja Rural-RGA Seguros), George Bennett (Cannondale), Adriano Malori (Movistar), Peter Kennaugh (Sky), Simon Clarke (Orica-Gr♔eenEdge), Damien Gaudin (Ag2r-La Mondiale), Ivan Rovny (Tinkoff-Saxo), Yaroslav Popovych (Trek) and Koldo Fernández (Garmin-Sharp).

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The riders dropped from the early break have been swept back up by the peloton on the upper slopes of the Colladona, and the selection is coming from behind. Contador's Tinkoff-Saxo squad are imposing a fierce tempo on the climb and riders are being jettisꦛo♓ned off the back. There were still 175 riders in the Vuelta peloton this morning, but many of their number could be struggling to make the time cut this afternoon.

A remarkable scene near the summit of the day's opening climb. The top three on general classification - Albe♋rto Contador, Alejandro Valverde and Chris Froome - have broken away from the main peloton and have set off in pursuit of the front group.

That leading group has reportedly swelled to 12 riders again on the climb, with Alessandro De Marchi and Wouter Poels among those to make it across. They have 14 seconds in hand on Contador, Valverde and Froome, while Joaquim Rodriguez is still in the main peloton, 26 seconds bജehind.

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The baker's dozen in front is comprised of: Rohan Dennis (BMC), Laurens ten Dam (Belkin), Luis León Sánchez (Caja Rural-RGA Seguros), Peter Kennaugh (Sky), Ivan Rovny (Tinkoff-Saxo), Alessandro De Marchi (Cannondale), Romain Sicard (Eur✨opcar), Johan Le Bon (FDJ.fr), Wouter Poels (Omega Pharma-QuickStep), Gianluca Brambilla (Omega Pharma-QuickStep), Damiano Cunego (Lampre-Merida) and Peio Bilbao (Caja Rural-RGA Seguros).

After that rapid༺fire start, there is finally a semblance of order to proceedings as the race hits the long valley between the Colladona and the Alto del Cordal. The 13-m🎃an break has stretched its advantage out to 40 seconds over the main peloton.

As a temporary détente breaks out in the peloton, it's as good a time as any to remind ourselves of the general classification picture at the beginning of today's stage. On the evidence of the fran🔯tic start, mind, there could be some significant changes by close of busine♌ss atop La Farrapona.

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The break has covered a very brisk 42 kilometres in a first hour of racing that included a category 1 climb, and their lead over the bunch is now up t🍸o 5:52.

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Chris Froome has spent most of the summit finishes at this Vuelta starting intently at the reading on his power meter, but the Sky man has told L'Équipe that 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:he is already looking to 2015. He is, however, still just 1:20 off the red jersey of Alberto Contador and after struggling at Valdelinares and in the Borja time trial, seems to be ju🌠st about finding his legs as this Vuelta progresses. Indeed, Froome was hardly idly day dreaming about next year when he tracked Contador's move on the Colladona earlier, either...

Red jersey Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) is clearly taking Froome's 2015 protestations with a grain of salt. After yesterday's summit finishes atop Lagos de Covadonga, he was disappointed that the pﷺoor collabo💃ration among the Spanish contenders had failed to keep the wolf from the door - after struggling initially, Froome ultimately lost just⛎ 7 seconds to the race leader.

"I was watching Vaꦉlverde and Rodriguez, because they’re very fast in the sprints. But Froome is, for me, the strongest rider I’ve ever come across in my career," Contador noted. "Between here and Santiago we’ll see how big an opportunity it was that we’ve lost.”

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Speaking after yesterday's stage, Rodriguez estimated that he was at more or less the same level as Contador and Valverde, and suggested that the latter's ability to pick up bonus seconds might prove decisive. "Alejandro knows what he's doing. He knows that if this goes on, he'll end up as leader. He's not losing time and on top of that he's getting more and more time bonuses," 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:warned Rodriguez. Indeed, Valverde has picked up 25 bonus seconds on this Vuelta so far, while Rodriguez has 12♕ and Contador just💙 6.

The category 2 Cordal is 7.6 kilometres in length with an average gradient of 5.5%. The climb should not propose any unꦗdue difficulties for the overall contenders but the deꦬscent is a notoriously treacherous one.

Se♓rgei Chernetski and Dmitry Kozontchuk are setting the pace on the front of the peloton for Katusha, with a long line of Tinkoff-Saxo riders maintaining a watching brief just behind them.

Warren Barguil (Giant-Shimano) is rarely less than forthright in his opinions and the Frenchman expects Rodriguez and Valverde to lay dow♈n the gauntlet to Contador and Froome on the road to La Farrapona. “Today, I think Purito and Valverde will try to bury Contador and Froome," Barguil said at the start. "I like Froome as a person but I don’t like the way he rides, always watching his SRM.”

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Martin Velits has dropped back to try and pace Uran back up. The Colombian appears to be in considerable difficulty and there are still three more category 1 climbs✨ to follow, including the tough haul to the finish at La Farrapona.

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Both the break and the peloton are on the sinuous descent of t🦩he Cordal, whꦐere Abraham Olano's overall hopes came a cropper in 1999.

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Uran is still just about in contact with the peloton as the climb of the Cobertoria begins, but the Colombian's gait lends the impression thaꦦt he is in some difficulty.

At the front, Pete Kennaugh (Sky) is leading the breakaway. The move is still intact alt𝔉hough beginning to stretch out under the impetus of the Manxman's forcing.

Lui🐠s Leon Sanchez has also been prominent in setting the tempo in the leading group. The best-placed rider in the move, incidentally, is Romain Sicard (Europcar), who began the day 17th overall, 13:15 off the redཧ jersey.

The word from the Omega Pharma-QuickStep ca🌟mp on Rigoberto Uran's condition is far from encouraging. "Rigo's ๊had a bad night and this is a bad day," directeur sportif Davide Bramati tells TVE from the team car.

Katusha's brisk pace-making on the Cober💦toria has strung out the peloton and reduced the break'﷽s lead to just 4:45. Uran, meanwhile, is again losing contact. Second at the Giro d'Italia in May, Bramati has explained that Uran has been struggling with some bronchial problems in recent days.

Chris Froome is well-placed in the main peloton, with a phalanx of black jerseys around him, including Philip Deigna⛄n and Dario C෴ataldo.

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Rigoberto Uran's pedalling is decidedly leaden and he is definitively dropped by the other overall contenders.✤ He is still five kilometres from the top of the Cobertor༺ia and he is already a minute down on the peloton, with only teammate Carlos Verona for company.

Dan Martin (Garmin-Sharp) stands to benefit from Uran's travails.&n𒊎bsp;The Irishman is currently 7th overall, and began the day just under two minutes down on Uran.

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Vasil Kiryienka, his unzi🍸pped jersey flapping in the wind, leads a delegation from Sky around 15 riders from the front. The big blocks of this Vuelta are all on show here - Katusha lead, followed by Contador's Tinkoff-Saxo guard, while the Movistar and Sky squads are gathered just behind them.

The clock suggests that Uran is clawing back some of his deficit and is now 38 second🅠s off the red jersey group. His laboured pedalling, however, suggests that his efforts ma🀅y ultimately prove to be in vain. Uran rides in the saddle behind Verona and Velits, wearing a decidedly glum expression.

Fabian Cancellara (Trek) makes a cameo♊ appearance at the hไead of the peloton. While Peter Sagan went home yesterday, Cancellara is still in Spain fine-tuning his build-up for the world championships in Ponferrada.

Indeed, Cancellara has even opened a small🌠 gap over the main peloton approaching the summit of the Cobertoria, as Katusha's pace has relented in the last kilometre or so. Cancellara is still four minutes down on the break ꧃and one imagines that this is an interval with Ponferrada in mind rather than an attempt to bridge across.

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Cancellara, meanwhi🤡le, is pedalling with notable facility in the big ring as he warms to his task off the front of the peloton on the approach the summit of the climb.

Further back, there could be a brief reprieve for Rigoberto Uran,🔥 who is bꦐeing marshalled slowly but steadily towards the rear end of the peloton.

Cancellara crosses the 🐻summit 3:50 down on the break but looks around with the air of a man who would be just🏅 as happy to sit up on the descent.

The Katusha-led peloton reaches the top 4:10 down on the ꦏbreak and 20 seconds down on Cancellara. who does not seem keen to take any risks on this descent. It augurs well for Cancellara's Worlds challenge that he was not only present but a🦩ggressive to boot at this point of such a difficult stage.

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The descent of the Alto de Cobertoria has not been kind to Cancellara's fellow countrymen in years gone by. Back in 1993, Alex Zulle's overall hopes took a blow when he crashed here. His explanation to reporters in pidgin Spanish afterwards?  "Bici - flores - culo - suelo," which translates as: "Bike - f𒀰lowers - backside - ground." It wasn't all bad for Switzerland, of course. Tony Rominger g✱ratefully rode off with the second of three Vuelta victories that year, while Zulle reached the finish in second overall, just 29 seconds down.

58km remaining from 160km

The break is approaching the base of the Puerto de San Lorenzo, the day's penultimate climb. 10.1 kilometres in legnth and with an average gradient of 8.5%, the 13-man l🅺eading group could begin to fragment towards the summit.

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There seems to be some discord seeping into the lea꧒ding group. Certainly, the 13 are not working as smoothly as they were on the Cobe♉rtoria, and it would be no surprise to see some attacks once they begin the Puerto de San Lorenzo proper in a few kilometres. For now, they are on the long and rather false flat that precedes the ascent.

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The break flashes through the intermediate sprint at San Martin de Tev𝄹erga. They are now j🐎ust a kilometre from the base of the Puerto de San Lorenzo.

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At the base of the climb, the peloton is just 3:22 down on the break and is almost upon Cancellara. There has been another injection of urgency from Katusha on the approach to the Puerto de San Lo✃renzo.

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Fabian Cancellaꦅra's 45 kilometre cameo is at an end. The Swiss rider is swept up by the Sky-led bunch 🌌on the lower slopes of the Puerto de San Lorenzo. Behind, riders are being jettisoned off the back and scrambling to form groups that will help them survive to the finish at La Farrapona.

Remarkable scenes at t♏he rear of the break, as Ivan Rovny (Tin💃koff-Saxo) and Gianluca Brambilla (Omega Pharma-QuickStep) seems to have exchanged blows on the bike...

Brambilla was upset that Rovny was disrupting the pace line in the break. Rovny reached across and laid a hand on Brambilla, w🅘ho responded with a slap to the fa🌺ce. Their remonstrations/pushing continued for 100 metres or so more, while Brambilla's teammate Poels drops back to keep an eye on proceedings.

Shades of Sean Kelly versus Eric Vanderaerden there. Kelly, incidentally, is on commentary duty for Eurosport this afternoon, and he offers a sage assessment of the fracas, noting that Brambilla can at least tell the♛ commissaires that he didn't strike the first blow...

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Alessandro De Marchi and Gianluca Brambilla are four kilometres from the summit of the climb and have opened a decent gap over their erstwhile companions. Wouter Poels and Luis Leon Sanchez are grinding up in third and fourth on the road, respectively, but they seem to be losinಞ🐬g ground to the Italian tandem.

While Brambilla presses on at the head of the race, his🔜 quarrel with Rovny has already

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We have no precise update on Rigoberto Uran's whereabouts on this climb but he seems to be somewhere in in the red jers🐭ey group. He was dropped ♒on the Cobertoria but managed to forge back up to the peloton near the top.

35km remaining from 160km

Up front, Poels has been dropped once again, and the Ita𒈔lian pairing of De Marchi and Brambilla are again cleaꩲr.

Groups of previously dropped riders are now making their way past the stricken Uran. His already faint podium hopes seeℱm destined to be erased this afternoon in Asturias.

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Rigoberto Uran is now ploughing a lone furrow🔜, 1:20 down on the group of general classifi༒cation contenders.

Alberto Contador, Alejand𝓀ro Valverde, Chris Froome, Fabio Aru, Dan Martin and Robert Gesi🦂nk are all still in this increasingly select red jersey group, which is being led now by Philip Deignan.

33km remaining from 160km

Philip Deignan c𝓰ontinues to lead the red jersey group and is picking off the remnants of the day's early break. Friday's stage winner Dani Navarro, meanwhile, is among the riders struggling at the rear of this group.

The red jersey group crosses the summit of the San Lorenzo 3:02 down on the two leaders. A💛ll of the general classification are here with one grand exception - Rigoberto Uran is now over 1:30 down on Contador, Valverde, Froome et a📖l.

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Mercifully, the rain has held off this afternoon, although the sky has clouded over at the finish and the temperature 🐷has dropped slight🌟ly at the summit.

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Contador was very nearly wiped out by a moto💦rbike as he moved up by the barriers, but after that heart-in-mouth moment, the Spaniard is back near the front of the group.

In fact, Contador does not appear to hav🌺e punctured. It seems that he simply changed his bike for♏ the final climb.

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The three escapees have a lead of just two minutes as the climb b𝐆egins.

Another remarkable scene at this Vuelta. The race jury's car pulls up alongside Gianluca Brambilla and flags him down. The Italian has just been told that h♏e has been excluded from the Vu🦹elta.

Brambilla sits up in resignation and spreads his arms out wide. The commissaires didn't want to run the risk of Brambilla꧃ winning the stage only to be 🌱immediately stripped of the victory, so they have acted with remarkable speed to remove him from the race.

A distraught Brambilla gesticulates animate𒈔dly as🍬 he discusses the matter with his Omega Pharma-QuickStep car. The Italian then pedals on forlornly with tears in his eyes, his race over.

Brambilla is caught and passed by the red jersey group and he🎀 points angrily to Ivan Rovny as he speeds past. Rovny, it seems, has not (ye𒁏t?) been removed from the race.

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Meanwhile, Alessandro D🧸e Marchi has dropped Poel☂s at the front of the race but his lead over the red jersey group is now just over a minute.

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Alessandro De Marchi was a fine stag📖e winner at Alcaudete at the end of week one, but he'll struggle to match that feat here, even though his lea🌺d has stretched out again to 1:24.

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Contador sits on Froome's wheel, with Rod🏅riguez and Valverde lined up not far behind him. There are still 20 riders or so in the red jersey group, and one imagines the first attacks of significance will not materialise until the final five kilometres.

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It will be fascinating to see what Froome can conjure up here. His Sky team were equally prominent in setting the pace at Valdelinares, after all, only for Froome to falter as soon as Contador kicked off the attacki𒈔ng iꦦn the finale.

Ryder Hesjed🦋al൩ is there to help Dan Martin. Contador, it seems, has just one teammate left with him in this group following Rovny's expulsion.

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Barguil is no longer part of the red jersey group, it seems, and Dan Martin is flagging at t♎he very back. Th𒁏e Irishman is beginning to struggle and seems about to lose contact.

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Froome and Contador have a gap of 10 seconds or so over Valverde and Rodriguez. Aru 🦩is scrambling to make it back up to the Spanish pair.

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Froome leads Contador past De Marchi. Valverde and Rodriguez continue to accelerate, but they are 26 seconds down on the leaders. Aru taps out his own steady tempo a little behind th🉐em.

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De Marchi can hold on no longer and it🤪's just Froome and Contador in front. Froome kicks again as the gradient bites but Contador has not conceded an inch.

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There will be no repeat of Mont Ventoux, however. Contador responds immediately and rips past Froome by launching a ferocious acceleration with 700 metres remaining. The Spani🔯ard is putting in a signficant down payment on final overal🥃l victory here.

Contador absorbed Froome's forcing and unleashed a crisp, crisp attack of his own. He will claim stage victory and extend ⭕his ovဣerall lead, sending the home fans on the roadside into raptures.

Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) wins the🍰 stage, 14 seconds ahead of Chris F﷽roome.

De Marchi is third on the stage, while Va💙lverde comes home in f🦩ourth place, 53 seconds down, just ahead of Rodriguez and Aru.

Dan Martin reco🎃vered sufficiently to cross the line in 7th.

Provisional result:

Result:

General classification:

As the race breaks for its second rest day, Alberto C💖ontador's overall lead is now up 1:36 ahead of Alejandro Valverde, but Chris Froome at 1:39 is perhaps the biggest threat to his red jersey. Though the way in which Contador ripped away from Froome in the finale suggests that it will take something remarkable to deny him a third Vuelta victory. Less than a month ago, we were told that Contador has "no possibility" of riding the Vuelta. Now he's on the brink of winning it. It's a funny old game, cycling. 

Joaquim Rodriguez is now 2:29 down on Contador and the most famous tibia in cycling, and a podium finish, it would seem, will have to be the summit of his ambition, although there is are still five stages between herꦆe and the finish in Santiago.

Rigoberto Uran, meanwhile, has dropped out of the general classification picture altogether. 6th overall this morning, he is still to finish today's stage after suffering all afternoon🅠. It's been a bad day for his Omega Pharma-QuickStep team, of course, who had Gianluca Brambilla expelled from the race (and from the leading group on the road) for trading blows Ivan Rovny (Tinkoff-Saxo). Rovny, too, has been disqualified for his🐽 part in the fracas.

Thanks for joining us for today's live coverage on Cyclingnews. A full report, results and pictures will follow here, and we'll have all the news and reaction to a dramatic and at times contentious day of r🎉acing at the Vuelta a España. 

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