Valerio Conti celebrates the biggest win of his career
On the longest stage of this year's Vuelta, some 213 km, the peloton sat back and let the breakaway escape. Tired legs and the prospect of a weekend of brutal climbing ahead meant the GC contenders were happy to stay back while the real bike racing went on nearly 35 minutes up the road.
The lack of action in the main field led many commentators' thoughts turn to their stomachs. Our favourites, Eurosport's Carlton Kirby and Sean Kelly spent some time reflecting on last night's cheese and wine dinner, ruminating on the French habit of combining ham, cheese and jam into the same sandwich and urging Juan Antonio Flecha to fire up the BBQ to prepare the crew's tapas.
Back on the road there was some exciting racing in the breakaway. They started to attack 40km from the finish but it was Valerio Conti whose push on the penultimate climb 16km to go that counted. The diminutive 23 year old, who has a rather awkward, crabby riding style opened up a gap that grew to over a minute, sealing the biggest win of his career.
The Aubisque could be an opportunity for Quintana to extend his lead tomorrow
Tomorrow the peloton cross the border into France for the Queen stage of the Vuelta when they tackle the mighty Aubisque. It promises to be a classic stage with Contador keen to increase his lead over Froome. Carlton and Sean should have something a little more substantial to chat about than culinary matters so you could do worse than tune into Eurosport for some pithy, witty and sometimes silly analysis.
