There were ten kilometers left and all peace turned into war, a fierce fight to claim the best positions, to throw the sprinter on duty, to celebrate the victory as a team, a perfect allegory of the spirit of the Three Musketeers; one for all and all for one. And D’Artagnan Van Aert took the prize, the triumph of the leader, the one who already wore the red jersey, the one who knows he is the most complete until the steep roads make their appearance. Groves, who misjudged, who chose the wrong path, came second to his disappointment, confident as he was of repeating the laurel and continuing his love affair with the Vuelta. It was not to be. Yesterday me and today you, tomorrow we will see. Above all, because Pico Villuercas is coming, the first test of the mountain, the real Vuelta. “The fun is over,” Van Aert admitted. Let him have his dance.
The sun took prisoners on the road and in the ditches, descents for water containers, refreshment areas please, moments of 40 degrees and a torment on two wheels that slowed down the stage again. The shade was an ephemeral ally, perhaps that offered by the trees that sheltered the asphalt, which were not few however in a Portugal as green as any other. But the heat was not an impediment for the old man rocker Maté was back in the breakaway, the best way out of his career, as it is already known that he will get off the bike when the Vuelta’s epilogue in Madrid concludes, the long-awaited time trial. But there is still a long way to go and the Euskaltel cyclist, 40 years old and a passionate young man, has a lot to offer.
As it turned out, the curtain went up and Maté jumped out like a spring with his teammate Xabier Isasa, also accompanied by Unai Iribar and Ibon Ruiz – another who escaped in the first stage – both from Kern Pharma, teams that from the start have livened up the atmosphere and explained that their invitation to the grand tour was not out of place. “Nobody can beat us in terms of excitement,” said Juanjo Oroz, director of Kern Pharma, at the presentation of the teams, there at the Torre de Belém, the opening act of the Vuelta. That was followed by a time trial, where the surprising McNulty took the world by storm and a stage decided by the end of the season. sprint where Groves imposed his law, a bullet man without remission. The Portuguese closure remained, the last word of Van Aert.
The escapees got on very well, friends until they reached Alto de Teixeira. And then Maté, the father of the group, did not forgive him, the one who was already racing when the others were sulking if they were turned off the cartoons on television. His was the glory, as well as the prize of wearing the mountain jersey on the fourth day. A colorful detail that, for the moment, is of great importance to the teams that will fight for the general classification or for the stages, from Castelo Branco to sprint again with a bit of an upward slope. And as that was the prize, with 20 kilometres to go, the peloton absorbed Isasa, the only one who remained standing in the race. Once again it will be the Homeric adventure, the impossible escape.
Campenaerts tried to make the move of the day, a sprint two kilometers away that left the mark of the wheel at the start but, having run out of lactic acid, he broke down with 700 meters to go. Carpantas The speed of the race. Marit (Intermarché) tried it from the start, but it was soon Van Aert who would get up from the bike and move it with kicks, legs of stone, pedal strokes of fire, why look back. His was the path to victory – as Groves would discover, who could not get through on the inside and when trying to go around him lost the slipstream and the success – a prize that he had not tasted since February, then in the Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne. Since then, five third places – one in the time trial of the first stage – and three seconds – one in the second stage – until Castelo Branco, when the leader became the leader. Third, more than meritorious, was the Vitorian Jon Aberasturi (Euskaltel). Goodbye Portugal, hello Spain.
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