Bettini Busts Pesky Peloton

By Ashton | Permalink | No Comments | September 3rd, 2007 | Trackback

The sprinters teams expected to vie for the third stage of the 2007 Vuelta, but World Champion Paolo Bettini, the Italian Quickstep rider, had other ideas.

The Pelaton rode a bit skittish following the crash late in Stage Two. No wanted to challenge the three men who had been in the break away almost all day: David De La Fuente (Saunier Duval), Ángel Vallejo (of the local Relax Team) and Serafín Martínez (the local Karpin-Galicia who was riding in the Silver King Of The Mountains Jersey). Martinez was protecting his jersey so he spurred the group all the way to the last big climb of the day. He did not have the legs for the climb and was swallowed up by the Pelaton shortly before the summit, but he fought his way back to the front evidently in time to take the third place KOM points he needed to preserve his jersey.

Rabobank had been working to catch the escape group, expecting to set up their sprinter, Spaniard Oscar Freire. Innergetic and Euskaltel–Euskadi moved to the front to try to set up their sprinters, but Euskatel’s Haimar Zubeldia crashed into a cone protecting the 20 km banner, flying over his handle bars. The Euskatel team dropped back to to protect him, but Zubeldia abandoned shortly after that.

Bettini saw his chance to take the stage from the sprinters and sent his entire Quickstep Team to set pace at the front up the face of the last climb and back down to the finish. The Peloton split in two going up the climb, dropping several of the sprinters out the back. The two groups came back together on the descent. The Peloton split again as Quickstep set a scalding pace trying to drop the sprinters through the roads along side the river winding through the seaside Spanish town of Luarca.

The Vuelta is not call this a Grand Tour for no reason. The competition fis ierce and the landscape is both breath taking and ever changing. Two Saunier Duval riders were saved from a potentially lethal spill over a picturesque curve in the seaside Luarca road. The concrete barricade that broke their fall seems to have broken one rider’s chin and damaged the other’s hip or leg. As horrendous as their injuries are, they could have been much worse. At least they now will live to ride another day.

Discovery Channel’s Aussie rider Allan Davis jumped into the lead as he was the fist to sprint toward the finish. Paolo Bettini (Quickstep) outsprinted Davis and squeezed Oscar Freire (Rabobank) into the barricades at the line to win the stage. Freire finished second and Davis third.

Freire stays in the leader’s Gold Jersey for another day. Cofidis rider Leonardo is s is second in the GC and Davis of Discovery is third over all in the GC. Freire also will hold the Points Jersey tomorrow. Local team Karpin Galicia’s Martinez will ride in the silver KOM jersey at least one more day. Caisse d’Epargne leads in the Team Classification.

Tomorrow’s Stage Four will be the first big day in the mountains and will go a long way to determining the eventual leader. It will be interesting to see who has the legs for the climbs after the pain Betinni inflicted on the race today.

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