Alejandro Valverde won his second stage of the Vuelta a Espana to close the gap on race leader Rudy Molard after he edged out Peter Sagan in a dramatic uphill sprint in Almaden at the end of stage eight from Linares.
“I do am really surprised with this victory, to be honest. Even if I knew this finish would be tougher than a normal sprint, I didn’t expect it to be that steep”, said Valverde after the 121st win of his career.
“Arrieta was insisting to me on the radio, after our staff had arrived to the finish before the race, that it was an excellent finish for me. He told me: ‘Just follow the wheel of the one who overtook you yesterday.’ I told him: ‘Look, ‘Arri’, I won’t go chase the stage win. I’ll try to just not lose time, and that’s it.’ If you look at the finish, it was so nervous already before entering Almadén, but the team worked so hard to bring me to the front. Since it was uphill all the way to that roundabout with 500 meters to go, I sort of got into the mood to go forward, follow Peter’s wheel and contest the win.
“At the finishing straight, I wanted to overtake Sagan on the right side, but Peter inadvertently boxed me in, and I was afraid I couldn’t pass. I stopped pedaling for a split second, went to the left-hand side, Nizzolo was also sprinting from there, I hesitated a bit… until I saw an empty space to go for my sprint, and I could overtake Peter from there. It’s a victory which gives you massive motivation. Beating Sagan, who had this stage marked down as a clear chance, and put all of his team to work at the front of the bunch – it’s just spectacular.
“We’ll carry on with tomorrow’s stage with a mentality of remaining up there with the top contenders, and hopefully have a hot at the red jersey. Up until today, my goal was not losing time and claiming stage victories, like the two I’ve obtained. Tomorrow’s stage will be a clearer picture of what could happen in the remainder of the Vuelta. Nairo is feeling great, and either me or him -hopefully both of us- will try to stay there. After La Covatilla we’ll see if we focus entirely on Nairo’s chances or it’s my task to still contest the race alongside him. What I’m right now is really, really calm: two stage wins… it’s a relief for me.”
