Schleck Solos to Victory; Rodriguez Into Red; Battle Looming

Trek Factory Racing's Frank Schleck broke out of his years-long slump to score a fine solo stage victory at the Vuelta a España today, outpacing Rodolfo Torres of the Colombia Team on the Alto Ermita de Alba's brutally steep ramps to escape for the win. The victory was his first of any kind, apart from the odd Luxembourg national title, since his 2011 Criterium International success and reminded us, perhaps one last time as he manages his twilight days, of the glory years when he was a Tour de France mountain climber of the highest order.

Ten minutes behind Schleck and his break-mates, the battle for Red took another set of twists and turns, as Katusha's Joaquim Rodriguez wrestled the jersey off the back of Astana's Fabio Aru, reversing a one-second deficit into a one-second lead, but a gutty performance by the wilting Aru prevented anything more decisive from taking place, as the Sardinian sprinted down his Spanish rival in the closing meters after Purito had gotten away inside the final kilometer. Rafal Majka of Tinkoff-Saxo stuck around just behind them to keep his hold on third place.

But none of them can feel too comfortable about what transpired, as Giant-Alpecin's Tom Dumoulin improbably hung on to the leaders' group all day long, only conceding some space inside the last km and its brutal, short ramps of up to 30 percent. The Dutchman owns elite time trialling skills, and after tomorrow's rest day it'll be his turn to shine. Dumoulin currently sits 1.51 behind the lead of Rodriguez, 1.49 to Aru and only 16 seconds to Majka (another capable cronoman)... all margins he could reverse, though nothing is certain, given the state of everyone's legs at this point in time.

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