Spaniard takes second and moves closer to Contador in the overall
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The top three: Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo), Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) and Joaquim Rodríguez (Katusha)(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Alejandro Valverde leads home Joaquim Rodriguez on stage 15 of the Vuelta(Image credit: Bettini Photo)
Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) tries to get clear of Alejandro Valverde (Movistar)(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)
Of all the top finishers at Lagos de Covadonga, Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) was probably one of the most satisfied, claiming second on the Vuelta a Españastage 15, shedding Alberto Contador (Tinkoff-Saxo) and reinforcing his second place overall.
The veteran from Murcia has never finished lower than fifth in the Vuelta since 2003 and is now, thanks to his cautious racing style at Covadonga, just 31 seconds behind Contador.
Furthermore, after receiving salvos of criticism for attacking so early and then all but cracking on the Camperona on stage 14, this time round he was clearly determined not to make the same mistake. So he opted instead for a ride that was anything but aggressive, prior to a final kilometre dash for the line where he and Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) gained a handful of seconds on Contador.
"I wanted to race conservatively," Valverde said afterwards, "I didn't want to run out of legs by the top so I took things a lot slower. I was also looking for the time bonus."
His reasoning behind a notable lack of collaboration with Rodriguez and Contador in a hypothetical joint bid to sink Chris Froome (Sky) was that "we didn't talk that much. In any case, I didn't trust either of them very much.
"Everyone did their own thing," he added on a team press release. "They were always attacking: firstly one, then the other... Purito [Rodriguez] tried it in the final slopes, Alberto jumped away lots of times... Froome also rode as usual in this race, looking not as strong as usual but still keeping the pace."
He also said that after one of his teammates, Jonathan Castroviejo, crashed on the descent of the Tornos - thankfully the Vuelta's first leader was uninjured, although the sight of his bike, minus the rider, on the side of the road next to a woodland near-precipice was a chilling one - "we opted to take things a lot slower on the downhill."
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"Tomorrow's stage is tremendous, hellish. It will be really hard, and I just hope that we stay strong and don't have problems like Castro's again."
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.
