Vuelta a Espana 2013 - Stage 14
The Vuelta a Espana returned to the mountains today, with a 155.7 kilometre stage from Baga to the Coll de la Gallina in Andorra. There was terrible weather forecast for the stage, and that proved to be the case. It was so bad that the television helicopters couldn't get up in the air for the majority of the stage. A break went early in the stage; it contained the likes of Belkin duo Graeme Brown and Luis Leon Sanchez, Daniele Ratto of Cannondale, and World Champion and BMC Racing member Philippe Gilbert.
The stage saw a number of abandons, partly due to the bad weather. Nick Nuyens of Garmin-Sharp, Lieuwe Westra and Woet Poels of Vacansoleil-DCM, and pre-race favourite Ivan Basso all pulled out during the stage, with Basso reportedly suffering from hypothermia. Luis Leon Sanchez also crashed on the descent of the day's especial category climb, and also pulled out due to hypothermia.
The day's especial climb, the Port de Envalira, carried particular weight today. Not only did it carry 20 points in the King of the Mountains competition, but the first over, which turned out to be world champion Philippe Gilbert, got a 1000 euro bonus. Also, if the King of the Mountains competition ended in a tie, it would be the man who was first over this climb who would be declared the winner.
The climb itself did a good job of whittling down the peloton, it was where Basso was first dropped, and the break also broke apart on the climb, with Graeme Brown and Steve Chainel quickly going backwards. Philippe Gilbert was first over, but was soon dropped on the treacherous descent by Daniele Ratto. It was clear by this point that Ratto was too far to be brought back by the peloton, but he was still not far from Gilbert. However, Ratto was never seen by another rider, and he continued up the summit of the Coll de la Gallina to the finish to take the stage, perhaps rescuing Cannondale's Vuelta in the process after the abandon of Basso.
Meanwhile, the peloton split under the onus of Chris Horner's lieutenant Robert Kiserlovski. Only Horner and Nibali could follow the pace, and Nicolas Roche, Alejandro Valverde, and then finally Samuel Sanchez and Joaquim Rodriguez were all left behind. Nibali sat on the wheel of Horner for most of the climb, and in the end they swept up Philippe Gilbert.
Horner did the bulk of the work, and Nibali nipped off his wheel when they got to the finish to take second place on the stage, and a 6 second bonus. Horner would have to settle for a four second bonus. Around twenty seconds afterwards Joaquim Rodriguez and Samuel Sanchez came in, and around another twenty seconds passed before Alejandro Valverde came in, just ahead of Thibaut Pinot and Domenico Pozzovivo. The day's biggest loser was Nicolas Roche, who lost four minutes to Vincenzo Nibali.
The overall classification now reads Nibali first, with Horner 50 seconds back, Alejandro Valverde at 1 minute 42, Joaquim Rodriguez at 2 minutes 57, and then Domenico Pozzovivo at 3 minutes 43. The first major shake-up has occurred, and should the weather continue like this, it will be a tough end to the last grand tour of the year.