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Vuelta Travelogue - Quintessential Spain
Stage 19, September 16th,
San Martín de Valdeiglesias - Alcobendas, 142.9 Km
A Passive Peloton Rolls to Madrid
With just one Cat 2 and one Cat 3 climb, Stage 19 from San Martin de Valdeiglesias to Alcobendas will provide one last chance for a serious break to get away. The scenery along the way is spectacular with great pine forests and huge granite outcrops. Much of the region is protected with restricted entry as it is the natural habitat to black storks, rare owls, eagles and vultures. In permitted areas, hunting and fishing dominate as pastimes, while cycle racing has also long been an important sport centered out of the stage finish town of Alcobendas .
Stage 19 starts in San Martin de Valdeiglesias near the Castillo de la Coracera ( Image © Unipublic )
The contenders for the overall championship wanted an easy day, but the short stage lent itself to breakaways. After only 14 km a group of four got away, led by San Martin de Valdeigles ias born David Latasa (Comunidad Valenciana). Only a chase group of seemed interested in the stage win. The peloton easily strolled along.
The peloton ( Image © Unipublic )
Attacks in the front group reduced the numbers as the pace of the chasers split that group.
Attacking the breakaway ( Image © Unipublic )
With 15 km to go the 4 leader were caught by Pablo Lastras-Garcia (Illes Balears), Martin Elmiger (Phonak) and Heinrich Haussler (Gerolsteiner). Aggressively over the next 2 km the final selection was made. Haussler, Elmiger, Latasa, and Juan Fuentes (Lampre) were solidly in control at the head of the race.
Constantino Zaballa (Saunier Duval) made a huge effort to catch the 4 leaders but under the 1 km to go banner he trailed by 19 seconds, his time had run out. Fuente was the first to attack the final kilometer, but was quickly matched by Haussler with Elmiger holding onto the rear. Latasa jumped at 200 meters with Elmiger in tow. Then Haussler burst up the middle with a strong turn of speed to gain the stage win.
 The sprint ( Image © Unipublic )
An elated Heinrich Haussler scored his first Vuelta stage win.
Haussler's stage win ( Image © Unipublic )
Roberto Heras easily retained the Golden Jersey as the Vuelta headed for the final individual time trial from Guadalajara to Alcalá de Henares.
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