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La Vuelta a Espana 2015: Stage 8 live race updates, blog

29th August, 2015
Stage type: Hills
Start: Puebla de Done Fadrique
Finish: Murcia
Distance: 182.5km
TV: Live and exclusive on Eurosport from midnight (AEST)

Top 10 General Classification:

1. Esteban Chaves (Orica Greenedge) 21:55:13
2. Tom Dumoulin (Giant-Alpecin) +0.10
3. Daniel Martin (Cannondale Garmin) +0.33
4. Nicholas Roche (Sky) +0.36
5. Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) +0.49
6. Joaquim Rodriguez (Katusha) +0.56
7. Nairo Quintana (Movistar) +0.57
8. Fabio Aru (Astana) + 0.57
9. Daniel Moreno (Katusha) +1.18
10. Domenico Pozzovivo (AG2R La Mondiale) +1.19
John Degenkolb is continuing to improve as he returns to racing (Image: Team Sky)
Expert
29th August, 2015
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Stage Results:

An aggressive and action filled stage 8 of the 2015 la Vuelta a Espana has seen Jasper Stuyven (Trek) sprint away with the victory in what was an incredibly reduced bunch sprint finish in Murcia.

The victory for Stuyven however, will not be the major talking point to come out of the day’s racing. Crashes marred the race and Peter Sagan has copped a post race fine for his actions after crashing.

For the majority of the stage though, it was a six man breakaway that ruled the race. Making the move off the front of the peloton was:

Iljo Keisse (Etixx-Quick Step), Jimmy Engoulvent (Europcar), Alex Howes (Cannondale-Garmin), Tom Van Asbroeck (LottoNL-Jumbo), Mattia Cattaneo (Lampre-Merida) and Ángel Madrazo (Caja Rural-Seguros RGA).

They reached a maximum advantage of about 4:30 before Giant – Alepcin and Tinkoff – Saxo who had been controlling the race for most of the day decided enough was enough and upped the pace, reducing the gap rapidly down to under 2 minutes.

They were given some occasional assistance by Team Sky and Astana in the chase.

With about 50km to go, there was a massive crash in the back of the peloton bringing down some of the big guns at the Vuelta. These included Kris Boeckmans (Lotto – Soudal), Nacer Bouhanni (Cofidis), Tejay Van Garderen (BMC) and Dan Martin (Cannondale – Garmin).

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Immediately after the crash, the concerns were grave for Boeckmans who seems to be unresponsive. He eventually was taken to hospital in a stable condition whilst Van Garderen was taken away with a broken collarbone. Martin and Bouhanni also abandoned the race.

The peloton meanwhile split in half and for a scary few minutes overall race leader Esteban Chavez was caught behind the split as his team applied the hammer to bring him back to a peloton that was still being controlled by Tinkoff – Saxo and Giant – Alpecin.

The breakaway would then start their first ascent for the day and immediately split in half. As the attacks came out of the breakaway the man who would go onwards and upwards was Alex Howes (Cannondale – Garmin). With the peloton pushing the pace behind, many of his breakaway companions were caught and for a period of time he was the solo leader of the race.

Madrazo managed to stay in front and as Howes over cooked it into a corner, he lost more time to the Tinkoff controlled peloton. Madrazo for a brief period of time became the solo leader before the whole race was brought back together with 33km to go.

As the peloton approached the second climb there seemed to be a real lull in the pace and as such Team Sky came to the front of the peloton and began drilling the pace. They would take the peloton onto the second climb where attack after attack would come. Niki Terpstra (Etixx) was the key aggressor going uphill, however none of the attacks were made to stick.

Sky continued to keep a tight control of the race going uphill before going downhill a trio of riders established themselves at the front of the race ahead of a much reduced peloton. The riders were Jose Goncalves (Caja), Kenny Ellisonde (FDJ) and Alberto Losada (Katusha).

For a period of time it looked like they were going to fight out the stage win between themselves as the chase in the peloton was nearly non – existent apart from a series of attacks which kept the pace high. At one point even stage favourite Peter Sagan (Tinkoff – Saxo) tried a move up the road.

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Off camera, Peter Sagan then had a crash, and it seemed to be with a vehicle. With his bike standing in the road he argued with the medical car before looking to kick anything and everything in his path. Since the end of the stage he has been fined for his actions by the UCI.

The peloton would eventually bring back the breakaway that had escaped in the last 20km, before a messy sprint took place. Pelo Bilbao (Caja – Rural) looked to have it before Stuyven came around the outside and took it right on the line but less than half a bike length.

In the end an incredible, but costly stage of La Vuelta.

Stage Preview:

After the first summit finish of the 2015 la Vuelta a Espana yesterday, Stage 8 sees the riders go on a course designed for the puncheurs, 182.5km from Puebla de Done Fadrique to Murcia. Join The Roar from 11:15pm (AEST) for live race updates.

Yesterday’s Stage 7 finally gave us a chance to distinguish who the real contenders for the race will be. Both Chris Froome (Sky) and Tejay Van Garderen (BMC) lost time to the other general classification contenders while Esteban Chavez (Orica-GreenEDGE) managed to hang onto his overall race lead.

This all means that Froome and Van Garderen are now placed into a position where they have to attack to gain back time, while the others can wait for the proper mountains to give it a go.

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Today’s stage will follow a mainly downhill route, at least for the first 110km of the race. It is literally all downhill, albeit on not a large gradient and with plenty of little flat ramps with occasional uphill ones littering the course.

After a demanding opening to the Vuelta, it wouldn’t surprise to see riders who are a long way down on the General Classification hitting the breakaway today and the peloton just enjoying not having to put in too much effort.

However, once they come through the feed zone after 89km in Mula, you feel things will start to speed up a fair bit. While there is still another 20km of downhill from that point, things will start heating up for the challenging finish to the stage.

The peloton will reach the intermediate sprint in Murcia after 136km, after which there is only 6km until they begin the first climb of the day. It happens to be the only climb on course and is climbed twice within a short distance.

The climb of the Alto de la Cresta del Gallo will be after 146 and 165km of racing respectively and in the official race handbook the stats are down as 4.2km at 7.5 per cent. That is a deceiving stat however as the first km is not hard, and the final 3km have ramps up towards 20 per cent.

There is only about 10km of flat that separates the two climbs and it will be interesting to see if anyone tries their luck with a long range attack. Following the final descent there will still be about 13km to ride. Some of this is a slight uphill ramp, however the final 900 metres is straight ahead and downhill which will create a fast finish.

It is going to depend on how the climbs are raced as to who wins the stage, however it might be too much for the pure sprinters. With so much flat in between the final climb and the finish line the climbs won’t be smashed to smithereens by the general classification teams though, so some could hang on.

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Watch out for the likes of Caleb Ewan, Simon Gerrans, Daryl Impey (all Orica-GreenEDGE), Daniel Navarro Garcia (Cofidis), Kenny Elissonde (FDJ), Sylvain Chavanel (IAM), John Degenkolb (Giant – Alpecin) and Daniele Benatti (Trek).

Prediction: In what shapes as a stage that is impossible to predict, Orica seem to have all the tools to engineer yet another stage win no matter what way the stage is played out. John Degenkolb should be the main contender to the win.

Join The Roar for live coverage of stage 8 in the 2015 Vuelta a Espana from 11:15pm (AEST) and don’t forget to leave a comment if you’re following along.

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