Geniez Wins Vuelta a España Stage Fifteen

Last updated : 08 September 2013 By Covsupport News Service

FDJ's Alexandre Geniez had a solo victory on stage fifteen of the Vuelta a España. 

 

It was an early start for the longest stage of the race - a 224.9km stage from Andorra to Peyragudes in France as a homage to the 100th Tour De France.

 

Txurruka, Nieve, Majka, Arroyo, Elissonde, J Moreno, Henao, Bagot, Mendes & Verdugo  got themselves into an early breakc but it was short-lived and Huzarski went away chased by Caruso, Popovych, Eijssen, Scarponi, J Moreno, Nieve, De Greef, Garate, Cherel, Zaugg, Elissonde, Arroyo, Flecha, Barguil, Majka, Henao, Cardoso, Geniez, Verdugo, Pauwels, Paterski, Mendes, Landa, Herrada and Cataldo.

 

Huzarski was caught after 29kms and it was Nichlas Edet of Cofidis who took the first King Of The Mountains climb and that was enough to help him become the new KOM leader.

 

Team Sky's Luke Rowe along with Baden Cooke and Brown abandoned as this group of 27 extended their lead over what was left of the peloton after fourteen riders withdrew on stage fourteen due to the extreme cold, to 2.28 with 50kms gone.

 

They were eventually pulled back as riders such as world champion Philippe Gilbert of (BMC), Simone Stortoni (Lampre-Merida), Zdenek Stybar (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) and Kristof Vandewalle (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) continued to abandon on a misty day and Alexandre Geniez (FDJ.fr), Francis De Greef (Lotto Belisol), Mikael Cherel (Ag2r-La Mondiale), Warren Barguil (Argos-Shimano), Andre Cardoso (Caja Rural) and Nicolas Edet (Cofidis) took over on the front.

 

Onto Port de Balés and into France, the gap was 5.25 as Omega Pharma Quick Step's Tony Martin abandoned and Cardoso and Geniez attacked and got away, leaving the stragglers to be swept up by the peloton led by Saxo Tinkoff team.

 

Cardoso took the points over the summit of the col des Port de Balés but on the descent away went FDJ's Alexandre Geniez.

 

Nicholas Roche tried to close them down breaking off the front of the peloton with Zaugg.

The sun was out as Geniez was well clear on the ride up to the finish line at Peyragudes.

Geniez, who was an hour and eleven minutes down on general classification, took the three final sprint points and kept going.

 

He built a lead of over six minutes with seven kilometres to go just before he went over the Peyragudes climb.

 

Geniez descended superbly at 92km/h and took a very deserved victory in a time of 6.20.12

Three minutes and two seconds later, Michele Scarponi (Lampre-Merida) came in, followed by Nicholas Roche who gained thirteen seconds over the top five riders in the General Classifiction including race leader Vincenzo Nibali.

 

A very happy Geniez told La Vuelta.com: "My first pro win was at the 2011 Tour of Austria. It happened in similar conditions as today. Winning the queen stage of the Vuelta is something exceptional for me. I’d like to win more often but we, as climbers, don’t have as many opportunities as the sprinters. It’s great. I’ll remember this moment all of my life.

 

"Firstly, I wanted to position myself at the front for being useful to Thibaut Pinot in case of the group of the favorites would come across. But thirty riders never form a very organised peloton. I wanted to go as far as I could and only keep motivated riders with me. I didn’t want anybody who was saving energy for later. A mountain stage victory must be well deserved. I hope I do. I gain a fair bit of time in the downhills. I hope this success will be followed by others."

 

Nicolas Roche (Saxo-Tinkoff) said: “I was very nervous this morning. I was scared of the rain and the cold. Finally, the weather wasn’t so bad. Before the start, I had considered attacking to make up some time. I’ve done it with the help of my team-mates Chris-Anker Sorensen in the Port de Balès, Oliver Zaugg in the downhill and Rafal Majka in the final hill. I would have liked to regain one minute. I only got thirteen seconds but I have no regret.”

 

Race leader Vincenzo Nibali (Astana): “I don’t know the stage winner. I don’t even know his name [Alexandre Geniez]. The whole bunch wanted to break away! My team-mates Maxim Iglinskiy, Andriy Grivko, Alessandro Vanotti and Paolo Tiralongo have done an excellent work in the first part. It was a very long day with the rain and the cold. There have been many attacks in my group as well, mostly by [Joaquim] Rodriguez, then Chris Horner, Saxo-Tinkoff made the race hard too, so I decided to attack as well but in the final climb there was always some head wind. It was difficult to keep a high rhythm. I couldn’t do more than what I did. Tomorrow is a shorter stage, I hope it’ll be easier too. We’ll have to see the consequences of the hard conditions of these two days in the Pyrenees.”