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Rainy mountain stage

Rainy mountain stage

Alejandro third overall 8” behind team-mate Nairo Quintana

After a week characterized by intense heat, the riders of the Vuelta a España had to deal today with completely different meteorological conditions (rain and cold) during the ninth stage that took place between Carboneras de Guadazón and Valdelinares.

Alejandro was able to resist rather will to the climbers’ rhythm in the final climb and after taking place 16 of the stage Colombian Winner Anacona won in solitary, he is now third overall, 8 seconds behind Movistar Team team-mate Nairo Quintana who is the new read jersey of the 69th edition of the Vuelta a España, and still leads the classification of the most regular rider.

Alejandro’s quotes:

After all that we suffered with heat the other days, these temperatures were quite a drastic change. Considering that this weather does not do too well on me, I think we didn’t have such bad sensations and we can stay happy with today’s result. When Nairo went ahead, I sticked to Froome’s wheel – I couldn’t bring him back to Nairo’s wheel. I just rode on his wheel and jumped in the final 150, 200 meters so I could take one or two seconds. The Sky riders really scared everyone, even Froome himself – I got surprised they rode so fast while his leader hadn’t shown as brilliant as he thought he could be. I’m happy with the white jersey, as much as I was in red, and even more now that Nairo is in the lead. We changed the race leader, but the jersey is still with us. We never hid the situation: for me, Nairo was the reference, while I’d try, as I’ll still do, to stay up-front until the end, but with no pressure. Now we’re first and third and we have a beautiful, demanding TT in front of us, where we will surely do well. I don’t really dislike the TT parcours: it’s a hard one, and when that’s the case, I usually do well.”

Tomorrow, first rest day.