Philip Deignan and his Sky team were on the attack at the Vuelta a Espana today and almost caught out some of their nearest GC contenders in the crosswinds.
Irish duo Philip Deignan and Dan Martin were to the fore on stage eight of the Vuelta a Espana today as crosswinds split the peloton in three in the final 40km of stage eight.
Deignan was part of a strong looking Sky team that announced their presence on the front with around 60km to go and then turned on the power as the race turned into an open section of road where strong crosswinds blew from the right hand side with around 40km to go.
As the peloton split under the pressure of the Sky at the front about 60 riders pulled clear, including most of the contenders for overall victory in the three week race.
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With 22km to go, there were three distinct groups on the road with 21 seconds back to the second group and 49 seconds back to the third part of the peloton as Deignan continued to apply the pressure on the front alongside his teammates and riders from other squads.
With 10km left however, Tinkoff-Saxo squad, Omega Pharma-QuickStep and the BMC squad combined at the front of the peloton where an increase in pace and lack of shelter combined to split the front group in half.
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At this point, Martin was caught on the wrong end of the split, alongside second overall Nairo Quintana of Movistar and the duo soon found themselves 15 seconds down.
Martin and Quintana were saved though by the Giant Shimano team, who managed to drag their GC hope Warren Barguil and fast man John Degenkolb back into contention in the closing kilometres to contest the sprint finish.
Degenkolb however could only manage fourth in the gallop to the line behind stage winner Nacer Bouhanni (FDJ), former race leader Michael Matthews of Orica GreenEDGE and Cannondale's Peter Sagan.
After all the battling in the wind, the top of the GC remained unchanged with Alejandro Valverde retaining the red jersey of race leader by 15 seconds from his Movistar teammate Quintana with Contador third at 18 seconds and Froome two seconds further back in fourth.
August 30, Stage 8: Baeza - Albacete 207km
Results:
1 Nacer Bouhanni (Fra) FDJ.fr 4:29:00
2 Michael Matthews (Aus) Orica GreenEdge
3 Peter Sagan (Svk) Cannondale
4 John Degenkolb (Ger) Team Giant-Shimano
5 Gregory Henderson (NZl) Lotto Belisol
6 Robert Wagner (Ger) Belkin Pro Cycling Team
7 Kristian Sbaragli (Ita) MTN - Qhubeka
8 Roberto Ferrari (Ita) Lampre-Merida
9 Tom Boonen (Bel) Omega Pharma - Quick-Step Cycling Team
10 Jasper Stuyven (Bel) Trek Factory Racing
11 Danilo Wyss (Swi) BMC Racing Team
12 Sébastien Hinault (Fra) IAM Cycling
13 Damiano Caruso (Ita) Cannondale
14 Michael Valgren Andersen (Den) Tinkoff-Saxo
15 Geoffrey Soupe (Fra) FDJ.fr
16 Gerald Ciolek (Ger) MTN - Qhubeka
17 Christopher Froome (GBr) Team Sky
18 Alexandr Kolobnev (Rus) Team Katusha
19 Samuel Sánchez Gonzalez (Spa) BMC Racing Team
20 Wilco Kelderman (Ned) Belkin Pro Cycling Team
21 Robert Gesink (Ned) Belkin Pro Cycling Team
22 Alejandro Valverde Belmonte (Spa) Movistar Team
23 Rigoberto Urán (Col) Omega Pharma - Quick-Step Cycling Team
24 Ivan Rovny (Rus) Tinkoff-Saxo
25 Fabio Aru (Ita) Astana Pro Team
26 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Tinkoff-Saxo
27 Nikolas Maes (Bel) Omega Pharma - Quick-Step Cycling Team
28 Maxime Monfort (Bel) Lotto Belisol
29 Nairo Alexander Quintana Rojas (Col) Movistar Team
30 Eduard Vorganov (Rus) Team Katusha
37 Daniel Martin (Irl) Garmin Sharp
47 Philip Deignan (Irl) Team Sky @st
General classification after stage 8:
1 Alejandro Valverde Belmonte (Spa) Movistar Team 31:21:20
2 Nairo Alexander Quintana Rojas (Col) Movistar Team 0:00:15
3 Alberto Contador Velasco (Spa) Tinkoff-Saxo 0:00:18
4 Christopher Froome (GBr) Team Sky 0:00:20
5 Johan Esteban Chaves Rubio (Col) Orica GreenEdge 0:00:41
6 Joaquím Rodríguez Oliver (Spa) Team Katusha 0:00:45
7 Robert Gesink (Ned) Belkin Pro Cycling Team 0:00:55
8 Fabio Aru (Ita) Astana Pro Team 0:00:58
9 Warren Barguil (Fra) Team Giant-Shimano 0:01:02
10 Wilco Kelderman (Ned) Belkin Pro Cycling Team 0:01:06
11 Mikel Nieve Ituralde (Spa) Team Sky 0:01:09
12 Samuel Sánchez Gonzalez (Spa) BMC Racing Team 0:01:11
13 Damiano Caruso (Ita) Cannondale 0:01:12
14 Rigoberto Urán (Col) Omega Pharma - Quick-Step Cycling Team 0:01:18
15 Daniel Martin (Irl) Garmin Sharp 0:01:34
16 Sergio Pardilla Bellon (Spa) MTN - Qhubeka 0:02:12
17 Daniel Navarro Garcia (Spa) Cofidis, Solutions Credits 0:02:19
18 Laurens ten Dam (Ned) Belkin Pro Cycling Team 0:02:25
19 Andre Fernando S Martins Cardoso (Por) Garmin Sharp 0:02:30
20 Maxime Monfort (Bel) Lotto Belisol 0:02:46
66 Philip Deignan (Irl) Team Sky 0:23:32
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