Tom Danielson rode another strong stage, with the help of teammate Christian Vande Velde, to keep his GC chances well within reach. His 12th place on the first mountain-top finish moved him back up to 12th overall. Director sportif Johnny Weltz sent this report:
The first moutain-top finish in this years Vuelta was a roller coster from the start with more climbing than descending.
Good wide roads made for a lot of attacks early but no one was successful. So it was not until after 50km that two riders got the release and gained up to 14 minutes before the field, led by Rabobank, took up the chase.
It was quite comfortable for us to sit in the bunch and the whole field came together on the first parts of Andorra. It was there it exploded into pieces.
We had VDV , Dave Z , Tom P and Tommy D together for a long time in the favorite’s group. And VDV did a really good job keeping Tommy D out of trouble!
When it came to the finale and the favorites started to move , Tommy D was up to the challenge and delivered a solid performance even though he said he was bonking a little. He moved up several spots on GC and has more to show the coming days!
