REIN TAARAMAE SUFFERED heartbreak when he narrowly missed out on the Best Young Rider Classification at this year’s Tour de France, but the Estonian bounced back to demonstrate the full scale of his Grand Tour potential in today’s fourteenth stage of the Vuelta a España.
The 24-year-old Cofidis rider, having secured a place in a sizeable breakaway, spent most of the day at the head of the field, before launching a solo attack on the stage’s penultimate climb, the Puerto de San Lorenzo.
Taaramäe soloed for thirty kilometres, the final twenty of which featured an elevation change of nearly 1200m, before eventually crossing the line 25 seconds ahead of Geox’s Juan José Cobo. The Spaniard’s teammate and compatriot, David de la Fuente, rounded out the podium places.
The most impressive performance of the day came from General Classification leader Bradley Wiggins. Flanked by his fellow Team Sky rider Chris Froome, the Briton appeared buoyed rather than cowed by his tenuous lead over the chasing pack and climbed confidently to take fifth place on the stage and extend his lead over Rabobank’s Bauke Mollema to 36 seconds.
Vincenzo Nibali, the defending champion and pre-race favourite, who began the day only four seconds adrift of Wiggins, lost 1:21 on the final ascent. He enters tomorrow’s fifteenth stage in seventh place overall.
Ireland’s Dan Martin climbed strongly to take sixteenth place on the stage and move to 21st in the GC, while the Garmin climber’s cousin, AG2R’s Nicolas Roche, finished in 22nd place, 2:02 down on Taaramäe. The result sees him slip to 15th overall.
