Vuelta a España Stage 8: Lagutin's Big Day; Quintana Best of Rest

Threadjack!

Sergey Lagutin of Katusha thundered away from his break mates Axel Domont of AG2R and Pierrig Quemeneur of Dimension Data to grab perhaps his finest ever victory, his first World Tour success. It was up the brutal Camperona climb, where riders were nearly coming to a standstill, including Lagutin's Katusha teammate Jonathan Restrepo, who led alone for a while before being caught by Domont's acceleration and left behind.

The GC riders were safely behind but there was plenty of action there as well, as Nairo Quintana took advantage of overnight leader Darwin Atapuma's weakness to dash away and win the stage, putting time into Chris Froome and Alberto Contador, among others. Contador managed to hang on to Froome after slipping back, while Quintana accelerated away, then caught his breath for a moment, and hit the gas again for the final 500 meters,

Results:

GC:

Villalpando - La Camperona.Valle de Sabero 181.5 km

Uphill finish! And not a gentle one either. The kind of stuff that makes grown men weep.

Börje Salming of the Day: Esteban Chaves

I can only think of a handful of riders in this race that can handle 20% well and most of them are Belgians. And of course, that's talking about beer alcohol %, not gradients.

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