2014 Vuelta a España Stage 13: Daniel Navarro wins

Daniel Navarro won the Vuelta a España’s 13th stage with a thrilling uphill attack. The Cofidis rider used the last ramp into the Parque de Cábarceno to kick clear, and then drove home his advantage over the final 2 km to take the win alone. Daniel Moreno of Katusha followed in a few moments later for second. Belkin’s Wilco Kelderman came third.

Navarro’s win came after a stage that saw the peloton pass over three categorized climbs during 188.7 km of racing. Beginning in Belorado, the course made its way toward the northern coast, through the mountains to the finish in the Cabárceno wildlife park. The three ranked climbs, the third category Alto Estacas de Trueba and Puerto de la Braguía and the second category Alto del Caracol, were minor compared to what the peloton has in store in the coming days but, with hardly a flat metre of road on the course, the stage remained a difficult one.

A group of 11 broke clear from the start, with Alexey Lutsenko of Astana, Jay Thomson of MTN-Qhubeka, Cannondale’s Peter Sagan and Paolo Longo Borghini, Jasper Stuyven of Trek, Damiano Cunego of Lampre-Merida, Belkin’s Stef Clement, Luis Leon Sanchez of Caja Rural, Danilo Wyss of BMC, Damien Gaudin of Ag2r-La Mondiale and Vegard Breen of Lotto-Belisol, included in the move. Together they worked up a maximum advantage of three minutes, while Orica-Greenedge took responsibility behind for the chase.

At the base of the final climb, with 1:40 advantage on the peloton, Lutsenko attacked the breakaway. Immediately, the group exploded, with five riders—Wyss, Cunego, Sanchez, Gaudin and Lusenko—eventually coming together in the lead. The five gained time on the ascent, coming over the summit two minutes in front, as Orica-GreenEdge let off the chase, frustrated with the other teams’ failure to help.

On the descent, FDJ finally decided to use their firepower and the gap quickly began to shrink.

Sensing the coming peloton, Lutsenko attacked once again, 15 km out from the finish. The young Kazakh put in a huge turn in the lead, holding off the combined efforts of his former break mates, who soon began to falter. As the rest were reeled in, Lutsenko stayed it alone until the 7-km-to-go mark when the Orica- GreenEdge led peloton finally swallowed him up.

The lead-in to the finale was just like a bunch sprint, with speeds exceeding 75 km/h. Tinkoff-Saxo and Katusha were most to the fore but it was Gianluca Brambilla of Omega Pharma-Quickstep who launched the first real attack. Under the arch, one quick turn and the Italian was away, bouncing up the 16 per cent slope, tiny bike swinging beneath him. That volley from Brambilla was nothing compared to the salvo Navarro would soon unleash though. The Spaniard riding for Cofidis, bridged to Brambilla, waited a moment then went for it. Teeth gritted, he flew up the climb out of the saddle, pedals turning violently.

A few of the favourites had a go on the run-in to the finish but Navarro was too strong. In the last metres, the Cofidis rider had time to celebrate, pumping his arms ecstatically as he crossed the line to take the most important win of his career. Behind, Moreno and Kelderman snuck away to take the remaining podium spots, followed shortly by a group featuring all of the GC favourites.

“The level of this Vuelta is the highest of the history,” Navarro said afterwards. “I’m proud to have won a stage, even though I firstly had in mind the three stages in the Asturias [his region]. My desire to win remains intact. Whatever will happen in the next few days will be a gift. As professional cyclists, we don’t have many opportunities. We must make the best of them. Now I’m 12th on GC. It would be fantastic to finish in the top 10.”

Alberto Contador of Tinkoff-Saxo remains in the overall lead, 20 seconds ahead of Alejandro Valverde of Movistar. Rigoberto Uran of Omega Pharma-Quickstep sits in third, 1:08 back.

For Canada, Ryder Hesjedal finished 92nd on the stage, just over three minutes in arrears, while Guillaume Boivin came in with the gruppetto, for 162nd place.