Kim Andersen Ride Quotations

Nicki has won a beautiful and very prestigious stage and he has every reason to be proud of himself. Steadily he has improved his form during this race and it's really something to be able to ride this fast in the third and last week of the Vuelta. Right now Carlos Sastre is almost certain of his spot on the final podium, and winning a stage on top of this is just icing on the cake for the whole team.

Carlos felt really strong at the foot of the decisive climb, so we put Calvente and Piil up front to set the pace. With about six kilometers to go Carlos hit a bad patch and instead of risking a total meltdown, he made the sensible choice to ride at his own pace and he did actually manage to limit his time loss quite well. The other day Carlos was a bit better than Mancebo and today it was the other way round. The time differences are still very small. The way it looks right now Heras and Menchov are the strongest. But there's almost two full weeks left and a lot can happen in that time.

It was too bad 'cause he sat with the favorites for a really long time. But once again it shows that Jakob is finding the form like Vande Velde, who has now been given the freedom to ride his own chance, while the others are going to back up Sastre 100%.