2011 Vuelta a Espana: JJ Cobo ascends the ferocious Angliru, takes red jersey

The final Grand Tour of the year has been one of surprises, but the leader going into the Vuelta a Espana’s last rest day is nothing short of a shocker. Geox’s Juan José Cobo followed up a second place finish on Saturday’s La Frappone summit with a masterful climb up the fearsome Angliru on Sunday to take a famous victory and usurp Sky’s Bradley Wiggins for the red jersey. Wiggins faltered three kilometres from the finish on a 20% grade, forcing his teammate Chris Froome, himself a earlier wearer of the leader’s kit, to leave him behind and chase Cobo. But Cobo’s attack, launched six kilometres from the summit, was a sublime one, one that might launch a relatively obscure rider with a previous Vuelta stage win and top ten GC finish in his palmares to instant notoriety.

Yet another of the Vuelta’s surprises has been the success of Geox. Though not a WorldTour squad, and with very few victories this season, the team had Cobo and David De La Fuente finish second and third behind Cofidis’s Rein Taaramae on La Frappone, followed by two-time Vuelta champion Denis Menchov out-hustling Froome for third place bonus seconds on Angliru. With Carlos Sastre lurking outside the top twenty and Menchov in the top ten, Geox leads the team competition.

Cobo is fabulously positioned to take the final red jersey in Madrid. The only time trial is out of the way and, though there are still mountains to come, only one summit finish remains in the final six stages. The Spaniard, nicknamed “The Buffalo”, leads Froome by 20 seconds and Wiggins by 46. Pre-race favourites like Michele Scarponi, Joaquim Rodriguez, Vincenzo Nibali and Igor Anton are either out of contention or have withdrawn.