Vuelta a Espana recap: The action so far

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Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin) is back in red(Image credit: Tim de Waele/TDWSport.com)

Stage 1: Porto Banus - Marbella, 7.4km

What happened: The opening stage of the Vuelta a España greeted the riders on a scorching day, and over an unconventional course along the beachfront of Porto Banus to Marbella. BMC Racing continued their dominance of the discipline as the Team Time Trial World Champions, winning by one second ahead of Tinkoff-Saxo and Orica GreenEdge, who tied for second. The latter had enjoyed the hot seat for nearly 10 minutes before the red-and-black skinsuits of BMC crossed the line to come out on top.

What happened: The fight for the general classification officially began on stage 2 to Caminito del Rey. The Vuelta wasted no time hitting the riders with challenging climbs on just the second day of racing. Esteban Chaves (Orica GreenEdge) took the biggest win of his career after it nearly ended in a crash two years prior. The Colombian bridged across to Nairo Quintana (Movistar), Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpacin) and Nicolas Roche (Team Sky) on the final climb up Caminito del Rey.

The big news of the day, however, came hours after the race ended when it was revealed that Vincenzo Nibali (Astana) would be expelled from the race. Video evidence was reviewed by the commissaires showing Nibali holding on to his team’s car for over 100 meters trying to rejoin the bunch following a late crash. Astana would also be without team director Alexandre Shefer for the following three stages as a result.

A sharp turn into the final climb with 4km to go launched several attacks, with positioning being crucial for the win. Samuel Sanchez (BMC Racing) was the first to have his attack stick, with Nicolas Roche (Team Sky) tagging on his wheel. The pair gained a small gap until the final kilometre when the road pitched up yet again as Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) weaved past with Peter Sagan (Tinkoff-Saxo) in tow. Valverde kept Sagan at bay going through the final curves to win stage four at Vejer de la Frontera and move up to fifth place on GC ahead of Joaquin Rodriguez.

What happened: On another scorching day for the peloton in the Andalucía region of Spain, Orica GreenEdge continued their dream week as Esteban Chaves snatched back the red jersey from Dumoulin by winning stage 6 on the Alto de Cazorla. On a similar summit finish to stage 2, the Colombian attacked out of the peloton to catch and pass Steve Cummings (MTN-Qhubeka) on a steep 15 per cent gradient on the final climb before heading for another win.

What happened: The seventh stage finishing in La Alpujarra would be the first serious mountain top finish for the peloton. On another blistering day, it was third time's a charm for the LottoNL-Jumbo rider, Bert-Jan Lindeman. The Dutchman had tried his hand twice before in breakaways during the week and finally succeeded at La Alpujarra ahead of Ilia Koshevoy (Lampre-Merida) and a chasing Fabio Aru (Astana).

Aru had attacked with vigorous speed out of the chasing GC contenders group, and would have had a chance for the win had it come a mere kilometre before. The Italian was the big winner of the day, putting time into his rivals for the overall to move into the top 10 on GC. Chris Froome (Team Sky) and Tejay van Garderen (BMC Racing) both lost time, having been dropped from the chase group in the final 2km, doing their best to limit their losses. Froome would lose 35 seconds to Aru at the end of the day.

What happened: A stage rife with crashes saw a diminished peloton crossing the line in Murcia on stage 8. Jasper Stuyven (Trek Factory) survived the major crash at 48km to go, despite several of his teammates being caught in it, to win the stage in a dramatic sprint ahead of Pello Bilbao (Caja Rural) and Kevin Reza (FDJ.com). It was later discovered Stuyven had won with a broken scaphoid bone in his right wrist, forcing him to quit the race that evening.

Tejay van Garderen suffered a broken shoulder and bruised lung, while Dan Martin also suffered a shoulder injury, having to leave the Vuelta sitting third place on GC. Peter Sagan (Tinkoff Saxo) was also involved in a separate incident when the stage 3 winner was taken down from behind by a race motorcycle with less than 10km to go. The team has since announced it is considering legal action, while Sagan himself was fined 300 Swiss Francs for his behaviour towards officials after the crash.

What happened: The 168.3km stage from Torrevieja to Cumbre del Sol caught many of the riders by surprise. Tom Dumoulin stunned the pure climbers, heading up the steep finish to take the victory. Chris Froome (Team Sky) had launched a late attack, trying to regain the time lost on stage 7. The two-time Tour de France winner had caught and passed Dumoulin in the final kilometre, nearly sure of a stage win, before Dumoulin dug into his last reserves to close the gap and pass him just in time for the win.

Meanwhile, Esteban Chaves finished well off the pace, losing close to a minute on the stage and slipping to third overall behind Joaquin Rodriguez (Katusha), who had finished five seconds behind Dumoulin on the stage. The climb and fast pace into the finish also caught out Alejandro Valverde and Nairo Quintana (Movistar), both losing 20 seconds on the day. Peter Sagan (Tinkoff-Saxo) did not start, forced to abandon due to his injuries from the motorbike incident before the finish on stage 8.

What happened: The 146.6km stage up the east coast of Spain heading to Castellón was a fast one as a breakaway of 40 riders was prevented from gaining any significant gap. Kristian Sbaragli of MTN-Qhubeka triumphed to win stage 10, proving the team’s success at the Tour de France was no fluke. The Italian finished ahead of John Degenkolb (Giant-Alpecin), who finished second for a second time, and José Joaquín Rojas (Movistar) in third.

The pace remained high throughout the day as the group came back together with 55km to go. The otherwise flat stage was disrupted by a second-category climb only 16km to the finish. Caleb Ewan (Orica-GreenEdge) did not start the day to prevent the young rider from burning out. With Peter Sagan (Tinkoff-Saxo) having abandoned as well, it was Degenkolb’s day to shine. The German sprinter was caught back, however, once the sprint had launched in spite of gaining significant ground and was unable to catch Sbaragli.