Vuelta A España: Stage 16

This was the third stage in a row to end in a mountain top finish, but this one was the most difficult stage. This final climb followed two other big climbs, so a very different setup than the past two days where it has been flat building up to the final climb. This is where I would expect guys like Carlos Sastre and Frank Schleck to try and take back time and maybe even the lead.

Both of these guys did try. Schleck even tried at the second climb of the day but Vincenzo Nibali's Liquigas-Doimo team would not let any major threat get away until the final climb. Then when Schleck attacked he was allowed to go. Schleck was a few minutes back so he could be allowed a bit of room. At first only Tom Danielson could go with Schleck, but he faded. Then came Carlos Sastre, but then he faded and so of the main contenders Schleck was the only one who looked to have a shot at catching the early day breakaways and getting the stage, but then he began to fade a bit. At the end of the day the stage went to Mikel Nieve and the real fireworks on the leader board didn't take place until there was about 2km to go. Then Joaquin Rodriguez attacked Nibali and found that Nibali had no answer. Rodriguez would end up taking back the leaders jersey at the end of the stage.

Tomorrow is a rest day and then the long but flat individual time trial, that will be an interesting day.

By the way I should note that Tejay Van Garderen completely cracked today dropping from I believe 11th all the way to 30th.  For such a young guy this was a very tough stage, so really no surprise to see the kid finally hit the wall. 

General classification after stage 16

1	Joaquin Rodriguez (Spa) Team Katusha	70:24:39
2	Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Liquigas-Doimo	0:00:33
3	Ezequiel Mosquera (Spa) Xacobeo Galicia	0:00:53
4	Frank Schleck (Lux) Team Saxo Bank	0:02:16
5	Nicolas Roche (Irl) Ag2R-La Mondiale	0:03:01
6	Peter Velits (Svk) Team HTC-Columbia	0:04:27
7	Tom Danielson (USA) Garmin-Transitions	0:04:29
8	Xavier Tondo (Spa) Cervélo Test Team	0:04:43
9	Carlos Sastre (Spa) Cervélo Test Team	0:04:53
10	David Garcia Dapena (Spa) Xacobeo Galicia	0:06:23