On a day which was always going to be one for the breakaway, 24 men escaped the peloton and then let Portuguese Time Trial Champion Nelson Oliveira (Lampre-Merida) ease away on the final descent to win in the grand fashion, solo, well clear into Tarazona after 168 rolling kilometres from Calatayud.Oliveira had plenty of time to zip up and straighten his jersey then take a bow for the crowd with a win which he made look remarkably simple as he slipped away from some of the best breakaway riders in the world.The move of the day had its beginnings not long after a warp speed first hour which saw 44.6 kilometres covered – and it was a biggie with 24 men up the road; including Mikael Cherel (AG2R – La Mondiale), Jrme Coppel , Sylvain Chavanel (IAM Cycling), Ruben Plaza, Nelson Oliveira (Lampre – Merida), Jelle Vanendert (Lotto Soudal) Nicolas Roche, Segio Henao (Team Sky), Davide Arroyo (Caja Rural – Seguros RGA), Julien Simon (Cofidis), Kevin Reza, Kenny Ellisonde (FDJ), Jose Joaquin Rojas (Movistar), Romain Sicard, Yukiya Arashiro (Europcar) and Pawel Poljanski (Tinkoff – Saxo) Cameron Meyer (Orica-GreenEdge), Steve Cummings (MTN-Qhubeka) Gianluca Brambilla, Niki Terpstra (Etixx-QuickStep) and Alessandro De Marchi (BMC). With Sicard the closest to Aru at inside seven minutes and Rojas the quickest – but the chances of a sprint are slim; the attacks will begin to fly from the break inside that last hour.It was always going to be a day for the breakaway with a lumpy,...
View the full article
View the full article
